Orb Knights
by Silent Magi
Summary: In a hidden recess of a ruined wall, Naruto finds a box filled with strange orbs. What are they, where did they come from, and what will they do? Let's find out, shall we?
1. Prologue

Naruto was stumbling back to his apartment a battered and broken young boy. It was October 10th and once again he'd made the mistake of going out to try and get some food. The mob hadn't taken long to find him, and then the pain started. He'd thought he would have died when the Bear ANBU came in and saved him.

Staggering up the stairs, he barely made it to his floor, when he noticed that his door was open. It seems that today there was more than one mob, one had been here, while the other beat him up. Now it was time to see the damage they'd done. Pushing his door open, he found to his dismay that they hadn't just torn everything apart and made a huge mess of his place, but they'd also broken a wall open.

Stepping gingerly around, he looked at the destroyed section of the wall and sighed as heavily as his young frame could manage. He'd have to set about fixing it later, but for now something else caught his interest. There was a small box inside the wall.

Curious he pulled it out and looked at the note on top. "The Power to Change the World."

Smiling he felt he needed that right now, something to make his world a lot better, so like any child with the answer to their problems in their hands, he opened up the box, and found... slimy looking multi-colored orbs. Sighing again he set the box aside, and accidentally spilled one out, to roll across the floor and hit his foot.

At first he thought nothing was happening, until the orb shot out tendrils up his legs and began spreading its off white color over his body. While that happened, he felt a strange warmth building deep in his body. No matter how much he struggled against the stretchy, sentient goo, it continued coating his body until he was covered head to toe in a shiny white fur-like latex coating, with flaming read tips on the ends of each of his nine tails.

As this information processed through his mind, he found himself looking into a mirror, seeing the red orbs that had once been his eyes flicking under his fox ears and an explosion of hair streaming back off his head. Reaching up with his hands he ran his fingers through the hair and smiled at how soft it felt, in fact all his body felt like it was covered in downy fur. That's when a voice deep inside urged him to speak.

"I am Kyukon..." he said calmly with a mischievous twinkle in his eyes. "I have chosen Naruto Uzumaki as my host, and soon my family will join us in defending Konoha... our new home."

An hour later, Naruto returned to his normal form, however a small band of the slimy looking material remained about his left wrist, as though to assure him of the bond they now shared. Even now the orb was feeding him information about what exactly was going on.

Kyukon, as the orb was named, was a semi-sentient symbiotic being called an Orb Knight, created and used a long before the time of the first Hokage. She had been the leader of the group of others contained within the other orbs.

The other orbs turned out to be creatures like Kyukon, all of whom were loyal to each other, and by extension the humans that they bonded with. Sadly the last of the orb knight's hosts had fallen and hid the box containing the orbs in a temporal anomaly which Kyuukon created to find one that they could serve as the new Master Orb Knight.

Naruto was to serve as the Master, until a better one bonded with an orb. The orbs had enough sentience to select those they bond with, and generally choose ones that didn't deviate too far from their original personalities. In Naruto, Kyuukon the loyalty, and honesty that she had always valued most in a companion, as well as a fiery passion for life. The fox affinity he held didn't hurt matters for her in the least.

Naruto was about to ask about that, when he found himself standing next to Kyukon, staring at a giant caged fox demon. The only thing Naruto could think when he found the demon glaring at the pair of them was. '_This... explains a lot..._'

"So... I hold the demon the Yondaime defeated..." Naruto muttered in a rare burst of clarity, "They must see me as it rather than its jailor."

Kyukon simply nodded while Kyuubi no Yoko huffed in its cage. "**Pathetic mortals and their shortsightedness... If I was you, they'd have died the first time they attacked you.**"

"Indeed Naruto," Kyukon murmured while wrapping one of its tails around Naruto's shoulders. "I have taken the liberty of cleaning up some damage done to your mind... you should be more... lucid now..."

"Lucid? What's that mean?" Naruto asked in confusion, before blinking and turning to look at the Kyuubi no Yoko again. "That's why I'm not having a shouting match with tall, dark, and fuzzy here, right?"

"**Ding ding ding, we have a winner... now how about you let me out, so we can have some fun destroying the villagers...**" Kyuubi offered with a satisfactory smirk. "**Come on, it'll be a wonderful time... just yank this seal off...**"

Kyukon watched silently as Naruto glanced at the seal holding back the great demon fox, and seemed about ready to rip it off and loose the demon on the village that had wronged him. She knew it was wrong, but she couldn't interfere with her hosts wishes to stop him. Just as he was within a foot of the seal, Naruto looked up at the demon and to both foxes great surprise flipped it off. "Yeah right ya bastard. They're idiots, but I swore to protect them, and that includes from you!"

"**Oh... you're going to be fun mortal...**" Kyuubi mused before settling down to watch Naruto's parting form. "**Little cousin... watch this one... he is in for a world of surprises...**"

"It is my honor Dark One... maybe you should reveal to him your other form sometime..." Kyukon mused before walking out of the cell room to continue cleaning. Kyuubi snarled at the smaller goody-two-shoes-Inari-serving cousin, so smug in her freedom, even if it was within the body of a foolish mortal. But, deep inside, Kyuubi no Yoko had to admit, the thought of having more room did appeal to it.

Outside his body, Naruto was examining the new jelly bracelet like thing he'd gotten again. Apparently all he had to do to activate it was call forth Kyukon with his mind. She had told him that it wasn't unusual that orb knights took more than one orb at a time. He was half-tempted to stick his right arm into the box and just see which orb covered him, but decided to instead get used to Kyukon first, and understand all that she was granting him before taking on another.

But first, dinner! He felt like having chicken ramen, of course just grabbing one of the birds sitting on the ledge outside and eating it raw was appealing too, but Kyukon conceded with the more human oriented food.

Indeed this was a partnership that would be a lot of give and take.


	2. Chapter 1

The next day found young Naruto slumped over his desk in a pose more reminiscent of Shikamaru than himself. Previously, one might have assumed that he was planning some grand prank and was faking being asleep. Today however, the steady sound of snoring coming from him was enough to convince people that he was really asleep. That and he'd asked Shikamaru to wake him up for class.

Everyone had to sweat drop when not even five seconds after Naruto had passed out, the Nara joined him in dreamland. It might be a good idea to point out that Naruto had a valid reason for being nearly exhausted today, as he had spent till nearly five that morning in deep conversation with Kyukon about her powers. Apparently he now had telekinetic, telepathic, and pyrotechnic powers thanks to her, all three sets of which didn't require a single drop of chakra. She indicated that mixing the chakra with the pyrotechnic techniques it might create more powerful versions of the same, but she stated that testing that theory would have to wait until he was FAR away from any other person. He figured just the base sets would be enough for now.

Thankfully Kyukon had promised to help him control the telepathic powers, and until then she would keep them in check. In fact, right now, while he was sleeping, Kyukon was having him read the minds of random students as a practice of focusing and controlling what he heard. He had gotten about fifty percent control, allowing him to pick single minds out of the crowd, and read them with voices that belonged to them, however he still suffered bleed through from other minds.

Putting a hand up over his head, he snagged a piece of chalk that Iruka had checked at him, almost perfectly in synch with Shikamaru's own hand snatching the one that had been destined for his head. Everyone watched as both sleepy pre-genins sat up, looked blearily at Iruka and went back to using the desks as pillows. Synchonized napping looked impressive to say the least, but Iruka had had enough.

One use of Demon-head no jutsu later, Iruka had both boys standing in front of the class, while he read off some lecture or other. They were being made to balance a pencil by its tip on the end of their nose with only chakra. Both boys were struggling, as this was actually a jounin grade training drill, but one being a genius, and another getting help by a non-demonic fox being in his stomach helped them immensely in keeping their chakra under control. Iruka was annoyed that by the end of the lecture, neither of the two had the audacity to let the pencil drop, though the marks left by the tip on their noses was more than enough of an indicator of just how much they struggled.

Naruto's reasoning was simple, he did it to prove that he could do it. Shikamaru's was easier still, Iruka would be more troublesome if he failed. And yet, as they were excused early to recess so they could wash their faces, Naruto couldn't help but wonder if Shikamaru was supposed to get an orb. Kyukon suggested it was a possibility, but he had to test the boy without making it obvious. The orbs were to be a secret after all.

Now Shikamaru might have been a genius, but Naruto has been running circles around idiots and ANBU for years now. Naruto smirked as he scrubbed the pencil mark off his nose, he had an idea brewing already. First stage was to get Shikamaru to come over to his apartment for a planning meeting after school. "Hey Shika, you doing anything after school?"

"I was going to go cloud watching," the shadow user answered after letting the water run off his face. "What troublesome thing are you planning now?"

"Just a prank to celebrate the end of another year..." Naruto replied cryptically as a smile spread across his face. "Need a little help plotting out the details though... and since you helped me last time..."

Now the Nara was a lazy boy, however his mind always enjoyed a good challenge, and Naruto for his dead last status always proved to be unpredictable and challenging when setting up pranks, or traps during class. With a smirk that one chain smoking jounin would come to hate in a few years, he extended his hand in agreement. "Give me directions, and I'll meet you there an hour after school lets out."

"Great! Oh, and don't bring Chouji or anyone," Naruto exclaimed while shaking the taller boy's hand. "I want this to be a big surprise."

"Tch, troublesome, but fine."

Naruto gave Shikamaru the directions and then went out to recess. Finding his favorite swing unoccupied, he settled in and sighed as the wind played lightly with his hair. It felt good to be out in the fresh air again, better than he could ever remember. From Kyukon he got something of an embarrassed feeling, but decided not to press too much. After all, if he had to trade a fear of being trapped in doors for the power to protect his village and the people within its walls, he would have no objection making that choice again.

It was in this musing that he felt an attention on him, it was one he'd felt before, but this time he could pinpoint its location. Without so much as flicking his eyes in the direction of the attention, he released a tentative brush of his new telepathic powers, to see what the attention wanted. What he got was not what he was expecting.

'_... ruto-kun looks less sad today... maybe something good happened..._' he heard in a shy, unassuming voice he knew he'd heard before, but couldn't place. '_I wish I could go over and talk to him..._'

His investigation into the voice was interrupted by the sound of the bell ringing for them to go back inside. Sighing, the new Master Orb Knight pulled himself up off the swing and followed the rest of his class inside. The idea of a possible friend hiding in the bushes, waiting to talk to him held his mind even through the rest of the lessons. Thankfully, Kyukon was helping him out and paying attention.

That evening, Naruto cleaned up, and repaired his little apartment as best he could. Sure he'd be tight on ramen money for the week, but at least the apartment didn't look like it was halfway through a demolition. One hour after school let out, precisely, he heard a knock on the door. Going over, he opened it up and let Shika in. After the standard pleasantries, which to anyone else would have been severely abbreviated, Naruto pulled out a scroll of paper. "Here's my plan, tell me what you think..."

Unfurling the plan showed Naruto had devised a, surprisingly workable, way to infiltrate the Konoha Military Police Force HQ, and completely flip every room in the entire building. There was only one flaw in Naruto's plan that Shikamaru could perceive. "How do you intend to glue the heavier safes and such to the ceiling?"

Naruto smiled widely as he pulled out a box of slimy looking balls of various colors and presented them to Shikamaru. "With these! They don't do nothing now, but if you break the surface they're stronger than super glue!"

Reaching over, the genius poked one of the balls, a bright white one lightly. It didn't feel like it should work, however when he pulled his finger back, he noticed that the ball was coming along for the ride. In fact it seemed to be creeping up along his arm at an unnatural and alarming rate. He was about to let out a shout of panic, when Naruto spoke up. "It seems that it chose you..."

Something in Naruto's voice sounded off, and when he looked up, Shikamaru found himself staring into the face of a nearly pure white humanoid fox with nine tails. Staggering back, he reached over to try and claw the orb off his hand, only to get that one sucked into the mess as well, increasing the rate at which his body was being coated.

After a few minute he stilled, his mind processing the data the orb was passing onto him. "Shiroshika reporting for duty Kyukon, ma'am..." A deep bass rumble ripped out of his throat, even as he caught his own reflection in a mirror. What he saw was amazing, to say the least. Every inch of his body was covered in the same white fur like he saw on Naruto, but where Naruto was a nine-tailed fox, he had antlers of a deer, and a less pronounced muzzle to his face. "Shiroshika... white deer... The myth of the White Stag... I see..."

Looking at the smirking fox creature that had been Naruto, he pondered the name he'd spoken only seconds earlier. "Kyukon... a kitsune of Inari's line... hmm..."

"Sorry about that Shika, but ya see why I gotta keep this a secret right?" Naruto asked as his second skin receded into the bracelet around his left wrist. "Gotta admit, it's weirder seeing it done to someone else than to have it down to yourself, huh?"

"Yes..." Shika replied as his own skin retreated back into its bracelet form on his own left wrist. "I think perhaps we should inform the Hokage of these... Orb Knights?" Pausing to wonder where that name came from, he got a nod from the energetic blonde. "Troublesome as it is... he may have more information available than we do on them..."

"Good thinking Shika!" Naruto exclaimed while patting his friend on the shoulder. "Uhh... Kyukon says that there's likely more acceptable hosts... maybe we should tell Jii-san that part too..."

Shikamaru merely nodded, while he felt the white stag setting up shop in his mind. It was only mildly less troublesome than having Ino practice her Shintenshin no Jutsu on him. The feeling of calmness and alertness he felt rolling off the stag made it a lot easier to focus and think. Perhaps this wouldn't be so troublesome after all.


	3. Chapter 2

Naruto fidgeted with the jelly like bracelet on his left wrist, wondering if this was the right thing to do. Shikamaru had said it was, and Kyukon didn't object, since the Hokage was their commander, and it was wise that such people understand what their subordinates are capable of. He didn't understand some of that, but he felt it was smarter to just agree. He did have to admit, that before Kyukon merged with him, he'd have gotten only a few words. Man his mind was a mess.

After a few minutes, they were called in by the Hokage's assistant/secretary, who always seemed to have some candy for Naruto when he visited. Maybe the sixty year-old was a little crazy, but she was nice and sweet. Entering the office, Naruto instantly waved to the old man behind the desk. "Hey Jii-san, how are ya?"

"I am well Naruto-kun... I see you brought young Shikamaru with you today..." Sarutobi stated calmly as he moved a pile of papers over to the '_I'll get to these when Hell freezes solid_' area of the table and pulled out his pipe. Naruto watched silently as he packed in the tobacco from his special white back with a strange five pointed leaf on it. He was slightly startled when the Hokage spoke up. "And what can I do for the two of you?"

"Hokage-sama..." the shadow user started with a slightly nervous tone. "As troublesome as it is... it is rather something has occurred that we believe you should be made aware of..."

Leaning forward, Sarutobi let the calming effects of the special leaf blend wash over him, feeling that this was likely related to Naruto's pranks or something, as it wouldn't be the first time that Naruto had dragged Shikamaru into his pranking. Normally the Nara would be able to curb some of Naruto's mischief, and it was nice to see Naruto have something like a friendship. "What happened this time?"

"Well, I was coming back home a couple days ago... and found this weird box in a broken section of wall..." Naruto started, ignoring Shikamaru's obvious shock over the broken wall. Sarutobi sighed and contemplated putting another guard on the boy. "Anyhow inside this box was a bunch of these weird slimy balls, 'cept they're not slimy..."

"Naruto, I think it'll be less troublesome to simply show him what happened..." Shikamaru stated calmly while resting a hand on the blonde's shoulder. Naruto looked at the other boy, before shrugging and turning back to face the Hokage.

One minute the Hokage was staring at two seemingly normal boys, the next he was wondering what the hell was in that last puff of tobacco. For he was fairly certain he'd just seen the boys get swallowed by a pair of flowing latex tentacle monsters, only to end up in something that looked like a cross between a human and some weird animal. Naruto had become a humanoid female nine-tailed kitsune, and Shikamaru... from what he could tell was a white stag.

"Kyukon and Shiroshika of the Orb Knights, at your service Hokage-sama..." the two humanish creatures spoke up in a broken unison, each given a bow before dropping to a knee in submission. The kitsune, Kyukon he reminded himself, continued. "As the Master Orb Knight I serve as the commander, currently at least. When a better leader arises, I shall serve them to the best of my ability. I realize your village has had trouble with one of my fallen cousins in the past. I would like to assure you that it is still safely sealed away..."

"Sealed away?" Shikamaru's voice sounded, while Kyukon's eyes widened in shock. Before anyone else could speak, the older and more controlled voice of Shiroshika spoke, "That explains so much... must be a high level secret Kyukon... I believe that we shall keep it as such..."

"Indeed," the Hokage stated while he watched panic via for control with shame on Kyukon's not-quite human face. After a few minutes of studying the two beings before him, he sighed and wrapped his knuckles against the desk, regaining their attention. "Kyukon... what you revealed is a secret punishable by death... Shiroshika, was it? I ask that you and Shikamaru do not fear Naruto..."

"Would not have occurred in the first place, Hokage-sama..." Shiroshika spoke while stroking his chin, after a moment Shikamaru's voice took over. "If he had been the demon fox, he would have destroyed the village years ago. I fear I had thought of Naruto as nothing more than a prankster, but his mind has a cunning that surprises even the prepared. He may be mischievous, and troublesome, but he is basically a good person."

Shiroshika picked up again calmly adding, "Beyond that, Kyukon is the commander, and by extension Naruto is the commander's host. Both of whom are my sworn duty to serve and protect as best as I am able."

"Good... Naruto you may calm down now..." Sarutobi mused quietly while petting the former boy on the head lightly. He was surprised at how soft and downy the latex looking fur was, and even more so when Kyukon began making a contented throat noise while her tails wagged lazily behind the kitsune.

"Thank you Hokage-sama, I fear... I may have inadvertently upset Naruto with what I stated, I did not know that it was a secret, and I shall guard it close to my heart," Kyukon stated after the petting was done, her eyes cast downward, as though she carried many secrets already.

Frowning slightly, the Hokage lowered the pipe from his lips and leaned back in thought. These two had such potential for much before this... and now... now he wasn't entirely sure what to make of it. Stroking his beard, he gave the impression that he was deep in thought about this matter. "You said that there are more of these... Orb Knights, was it?"

"Yes Hokage-sama... the container in which we were stored has several others awaiting suitable hosts," Shiroshika spoke up, with Kyukon nodding her agreement. The stag whipped his head around so fast the antlers whistled, before he let out a trio of clicks with his tongue. Half a second later, Naruto and Shikamaru were back in their normal forms, but Sarutobi could see the bracelets that he had overlooked before.

A knock on the door signaled to Sarutobi what exactly had spooked the boys into reverting, just before he could speak up, Kurenai, a chuunin that was up for jounin exams in the next few months entered with a worried look on her face. "Hokage-sama, I would like to speak with you... privately if possible..."

"I'm in the middle of a meeting right now Yuhi-san... Is this about our usual topic of concern?" Sarutobi asked, indicating the two boys who were looking more confused by the minute.

"It is... and I'd rather not put this off..."the red-eyed genjutsu mistress stated calmly before sighing and looking at the two boys. "Boys, I apologize for interrupting, but this is a rather sensitive matter... and..."

"We understand ma'am..." Shika spoke up, stifling Naruto with a hand on the shorter blonde's shoulder. "If you have anything we could do to be of help..."

"Why don't you boys take Hinata to Naruto's apartment and study for the test you have next week," Sarutobi cut in with a warm smile. "You did bring her with you, didn't you Yuhi-san?"

"Yes... she is in the lobby..." Kurenai stated before looking sidelong at the boys, coming closer to the desk. "I shall pick her up there after I'm done..."

The trip back to Naruto's apartment was quick and quite, with neither boy knowing what to talk to a girl about, and Hinata blushing and fidgeting as they went. The main reason for Naruto's silence was that he was holding a conference with Kyukon in his mind-scape.

"I have to say... this is nicer than the sewers..." Kyukon mused while looking around the lush garden surrounding them. "Thank you Naruto..."

"Well... you don't deserve to be stuck in those sewers..." Naruto stated while scratching the back of his head, a full blush on his cheeks. "I also feel bad about yelling at you earlier..."

"It is understandable, as you had much being revealed too rapidly... I should have thought that you would not want such news advertised..." Kyukon whispered while wrapping her tails around herself in a cocoon of warmth and protection. "I would make it never have happened if I could, but I believe it may be for the best that it did, as you know that you now have a loyal compatriot at your side... and maybe a girl interested in you..."

"A... A g...girl? But... we're too young for that sorta thing... aren't we?" Naruto asked while a blush formed on his cheeks. "I mean dating's for older kids... like being a gennin, and such..."

Kyukon tried to not laugh at him, really she did. She bit her tongue, hid her head inside her tails, she even tried to think of sad girls in the snow. Sadly nothing worked, and she broke down in giggles. When Naruto began pouting, the giggles only got worse. Instead of pressing the matter, he decided to visit upon the other resident of his mind.

Walking through the paths, he found the demon fox kneeling over a giant lake, looking at the collar about it's neck. Naruto settled down to watch it silently for a few minutes, before the great demonic beast turned its attention on the boy of sunshine hair. "**So the warden comes to visit the prisoner...**"

Naruto frowned slightly at the growling beast, for some reason there was a lack of malice that he had expected in its words. After a couple seconds he spoke up. "Why'd you do it?"

"**Why? You ask me why a great demonic affront to all you hold dear attacked your pathetic little village?**" Kyuubi snarled, leveling its glare at the jailor holding it prisoner. After a moment of the stare down, it snorted and turned away. "**Feh, begone meat sack, you sicken me with your prescience.**"

Naruto half-expected a giant wind to whisk him away, and send him back to the real world, instead he felt a gentle pull from somewhere, that returned him just in time to fish out his keys to his apartment. In his mindscape, Kyukon sat down and watched her giant cousin run tails over its eyes, as though it had been crying. Instead of saying anything, it merely leaped onto the Kyuubi's head, and began to gently lick it behind the ears. The action seemed to have soothed the mighty demon, as it settled down rather than lash out at her.

As Naruto opened the door to his apartment, he and Shikamaru realized that they had forgotten one small detail when they left. They hadn't hidden the box with the orbs inside. Hinata's gaze passed over the entire room, a small smile spreading on her lips as she walked in behind Naruto, her forefingers poking each other nervously.

Sadly the one place she didn't look was where she was walking. She tripped over one of the scrolls Naruto's horizontal filing system had placed a little too close to the main walk way. The two boys tried to catch her as she fell, but her flailing arms prevented them from getting a good grip, and she hit the ground hard. Her fall didn't land her in the box, but it was close enough that a single vibrant rainbow colored orb with a golden top popped up, out of the box and landed on her chest.

The first thing that the boys had to admit, was it was a lot less disturbing watching this transformation. Instead of looking like a weird latex beast clawing its way up their arms and legs, it actually looked more like waves washing over Hinata's body, covering her slowly in segments.

Her main body took on a subtle blue hue, while it was cloaked in an almost water like silk gown, in place of her violet bob-cut hair, was a stunning waterfall of shimmering gold reaching down to her waist. Her lavender eyes had turned into piercing blue eyes which looked deeper than the depths of the ocean. Out of her back sprang forth two gossamer wings that rippled and danced like a living rainbow. Unlike the other two, she bore a walking staff that was tipped with a plant that bore simple rounded leaves with saw like edges and had a cluster of hazelnuts resting at its base.

Looking around momentarily, she locked eyes with Naruto for a moment before taking a knee and stretching out her staff in an offering pose. "Enganxa is here Lady Kyukon, and I hope to serve you well... This child is one of the peaceful lakes... I like her."

Naruto and Shikamaru looked at each other, while Enganxa began picking around Naruto's apartment with a lot of tsk-ing sounds. Only two things ran through their minds as the Aloja continued to peruse Naruto's living space with a running dialogue with Hinata. The first was that they could actually identify the being as an Aloja, and the second was that they were in deep trouble when the Hokage found out about this.

Before they could get in more trouble, Naruto decided to put the cover on the box, and hid it deep under his bed, pushing out some underwear he had thought long lost, much to the poor boys embarrassment. However, there was one good thing about the showing of the unmentionables. Enganxa had retreated back to a simple choker around Hinata's neck, and the Hyuuga heiress passed out with a heavy blush, and a huge smile.

Naruto could only think that he was in so deep that he'd be lucky if the Hokage killed him, instead of handing him over to the tender mercies of the Hyuuga clan.


	4. Chapter 3

When the Hokage and Kurenai finished their meeting, and found the two boys standing next to a passed out Hinata, they knew something was up. First of all, both boys had a very nervous, shifty look to them. Second, Hinata had a new choker on her neckline, well it was more the fact she was happily passed out right now that caught Kurenai's attention, but the Hokage spotted the choker. Third, and probably most damning of all, they refused to look at the two adults.

"Yuhi-san... if you would please take Hinata into my office, I believe the couch is the best place for her at this time... Naruto... Shikamaru... get in there," Sarutobi started kindly, before shifting into an order mode that had the boys scrambling to comply. Kurenai was a little more graceful as she scooped up the unconscious girl and carried her gently over to the couch. Laying her down with a long practiced motion, she turned to look at the Hokage with an expectant look.

The Hokage instead simply motioned to the two extremely guilty looking boys, however before they could say anything, the doors burst inward and a strange woman wearing little more than fishnets and a trench coat barged in. "Ah, Mitarashi-san, so good you could make it... Now we only have to do this once..."

"What's up with the bratlings?" the purple haired woman asked before looping an arm around Kurenai's shoulder. "Nai-chan... you got dragged into this as well?"

Sarutobi took the distracting person's entrance in stride, and decided to simply press on. "Naruto, if you wouldn't mind bringing Kyukon-san out..."

Naruto looked at the two woman sharing the sea next to the couch with Hinata on nervously, before pausing as though thinking about something suddenly. After a couple minutes he let out a heavy sigh and nodded. "Yes Jii-san... just a moment."

Holding up his left arm, the three adults watched as the gel like bracelet began to slowly spread out over the orange clad boy's body almost like he was purposefully dragging out the process for show. Shikamaru knew exactly what he was doing, they had discussed on the way that when showing people they weren't fighting for the first time, they would try to use Hinata's smoother transformation process.

The Hokage had to admit he preferred this method more than the viral clawing of tentacles of latex. His two wonderfully loyal chuunin on the other hand... were staring in sheer shock and awe over what they were witnessing. After finishing the transformation, the kitsune turned and bowed in greeting to the two stunned women. If it wasn't for the fact that Anko was sitting on Kurenai's lap, everyone was nearly certain that they'd have bolted for the door as she spoke. "Good evening, I am Kyukon, and we are the Orb Knights."

The two women blinked owlishly as they processed that little bit of information. Apparently the snake mistress was quicker in coming to her senses, Sarutobi wrote it off in part to the fact that she had once been Orochimaru's apprentice, and the debriefing after his betrayal was enough to leave Ibiki twitching violently for an entire week.

"We?" Anko questioned curiously, albeit still rather sluggishly. Kyukon nodded and indicated Shikamaru and the still unconscious Hinata.

With a nod, Shikamaru let his own transformation ripple over his body, revealing the form of Shiroshika. A graceful bow and he indicated Hinata. "I fear that she was a rather unfortunate accident... but from our memories, it is a rather fortunate one, in that her alternate form is very powerful in the ways of magic... She also seems to bring about an inner strength in her hosts..."

"Hosts?" Kurenai voiced cautiously, as though somewhat believing this to be a dream. "You mean you have had previous hosts?"

Kyukon and Shiroshika looked shiftily at each other before smiling nervously. "Actually milady," the soothing tones of Kyukon spoke while she played nervously with one of her tails. "These are our second host bodies..."

"So you know what we should look out for as far as side effects to the children, right?" Kurenai asked while smoothing some of Hinata's hair gently. "Or at least a rough guess..."

"That is not exactly accurate..." the white stag answered sheepishly while edging behind Kyukon, knowing she was the stronger fighter. "The original host bodies were little more than empty shells that were designed for us to possess."

The silence was palpable in the room as the new information was being processed by the responsible adults... and Anko. The children were either comfortable with their symbiotic guests, or dreaming about a wedding to a certain man wearing an orange tuxedo while foxes danced under a sunshine and rain filled sky. It was such a shame that there was no such thing as a psychologist in the shinobi ranks... they would have been rich in a fortnight.

Kyukon spoke up while the adults were digesting the information that they had three symbiotic beings that had what basically amounted to no idea on how they would effect their host bodies. "We are experienced in combat, and the scientists stated that the previous host bodies suffered no ill effects from our possession... for the most part," Kyukon amended her statement after a moment of thought. "There were a few which suffered from broken bones when the defenses didn't hold up..." Kyukon walked over and stroked Hinata's new choker softly, causing it to ripple in response. "We do not blame the symbiont... they were not made for fighting... it is our fault... the fighters are made to take the blows..."

The shame filled stances of Kyukon and Shiroshika spoke volumes to the experienced shinobi, these had seen combat before, and an order to protect the non-combat member had fallen apart. They might have the minds of adults, but it seemed more like they were children forced to grow old too fast. There was much that they were hiding from the elders, and much they had to learn, but the raw material was there for them to mold and guide.

"I believe that we should send for Tsunade of the Sannin," Sarutobi stated calmly while pulled out a scroll and began writing out a plan. "Once they are checked out, I will approve of them having supervised training by the two of you, Tsunade, and possibly Iruka as well... But... I need someone to go and ensure that Tsunade comes... she will be resistant."

"We volunteer to go..." Kyukon spoke up, straightening up to address the Hokage properly, "It is our hosts that need examination, and if she refuses to return, we may convince her to perform the examinations where we find her."

"Beyond that, the practical knowledge we gain from seeing such a reasonably safe mission being performed may prove more valuable than the material provided at the academy," Shiroshika clarified to the Hokage.

"Besides, it would be an utter waste to not get some experience with our new hosts..." the body on the couch spoke up with a confidence that Hinata completely lacked. The blue skin and gleaming gossamer wings gave the other two knights more than enough of a hint as to who was in control currently. "Allow me to introduce myself, I am Enganxa, Orb Knight primarily of the magical support category."

"Is your host still recovering from the fall?" Kyukon asked curiously, worry evident in her voice. "Naruto has been worried about her since we brought her in..."

"She is... fine... though I would advise against taking her back to that clan house..." the water woman started calmly before turning into a violent and turbulent embodiment of power. "_**EVER!**_"Looking around she locked eyes with Kurenai quietly, after a moment she nodded and plucked a single hazelnut off her staff. Reaching over she placed it in Kurenai's hand gently, folding the older woman's hands over the seed. "You have served my host well in the past, I thank you... this is but a small token of my favor, if you ever have need of me, simply crack the shell and I shall arrive."

The red-eyed woman nodded as she swallowed a lump in her through. After tucking the seed away, she reached out and ran a finger through Enganxa's hair, marveling at how smooth the strands were. "You're real... not just some latex mask..."

"Indeed, we are real symbiotic lifeforms..." the water woman answered calmly while scooping Kurenai's hand in her own and resting her cheek against the palm gently. "See? Just as real as you are..."

"HEY! THAT'S MY GIRLFRIEND YOU'RE MESSING WITH!" Anko screamed with flames of rage flaring up behind her. This caused many things to happen at once. First, the hokage developed a sudden and unexpected nosebleed. Second, Kyukon and Shiroshika looked at each other in confusion. Third and possibly the most unexpected, the golden haired, blue-skinned woman began laughing like a babbling brook.

"Oh, forgive me Mitarashi-san..." the orb knight answered after her giggling had subsided. "I did not mean it as such. My host sees her as a mother, also... my heart belongs to another... a white knight that has saved me before..."

"Oh... well... uh... that's good..." Anko answered nervously as Kurenai turned to glare daggers at the snake mistress. "Now Nai-chan... let's be reasonable... I mean I know I just goofed but that doesn't mean you want to do anything I'm going to regret..."

At Kurenai's smirk, Anko let out a whimper of terror, and dove for cover behind the Hokage's desk. "I'll take the mission to get Tsunade, hell I'll even throw in a ripping out of Orochimaru's tongue, just get me away from her glare! PLEASE!"

"I think... for now I shall simply send a request message by hawk," Sarutobi stated calmly as he edged away from the grovelling and doomed woman. "But, I would like you two to take these three out after classes and work on their training, both regular and in the... knight forms... somewhere private..."

The knights all turned towards Kurenai, who was towering with rage, before dropping to a knee and putting their hands to the ground a foot ahead of themselves. "We are yours to command Ladies Yuhi and Mitarashi. Please help us become what we are meant to be."

Kurenai paused in surprise at the seriousness of their tones. "I will have to talk with your current academy sensei... Iruka, was it? To get to know what you need to improve on, and how best we can teach you..."

"Yeah, that's right! We gotta know that stuff..." Anko supported Kurenai from her hiding spot behind the desk. Unfortunately for her, it was too little, too late, as Kurenai simply walked over to the desk, and dragged Anko out of the room by the collar of her coat. "No Nai-chan, please don't... not that... please NOOOOOOOOoooooooo...." Anko's voice trailed off as she was dragged out of the room.

"Can... you block your hosts from gaining memories?" Sarutobi asked shortly after the doors to his office slammed shut. Getting a shrug from the three knights he sighed and set to writing that letter to summon Tsunade back. He felt that she would be far less of a headache than these Orb Knights or their teachers. "For now, I ask that you keep this a secret, and to keep the box of orbs hidden..."

"Hokage-sama, if I may have a word with you... about Naruto?" Kyukon stated after rising to her feet, her tails swayed behind her lazily. A nod from Sarutobi reverted the other two back to their normal selves, and he sent them back outside for the time being. Once they were alone, Kyukon let out a sigh and shook her head. "I have been over his memories several times... and I must say I find his treatment appalling... if it wasn't for Ichiraku's Ramen, he'd have starved to death ages ago. He is grossly overcharged, and they brag about it to his face. He is beaten, his home vandalized... The only place he ever felt safe is here, and at the academy once Iruka was won over onto his side. And about that academy, did you know they are giving him material that shouldn't be on tests for another full two years, and doubling his errors?"

As the kitsune began pacing, Sarutobi began to notice that the orange tips of her tail took on a deeper red tint, and spread slowly towards her main body. "Lady Kyukon... I had not known... I fear Naruto does not tell me these things, and I lack the time to dedicate to properly supervise him..."

The fuming fox woman stalled in mid-stride, and blushed slightly, a feat considering she had fur over the part that was changing colors. "I'm sorry sir, I was out of line... but it sickens me that a child, especially one as sweet as Naruto has been to me, might be so ill-treated by the very people he's protecting..."

Holding up a hand to stop her from continuing, the Hokage smiled tiredly as a plan formed in his mind. After all, if they were to train together, and two of the three were already on... non-traditional... housing plans, why not adjust things to make it better for all involved. "I have a plan in mind that may solve this... but I need time to work out the details. Can you put up with the foolish humans of this village for a little longer? I will see about making certain that Naruto is better cared for immediately... in fact..."

The old man reached in his desk and pulled out a trio of small embossed cards with a golden spiral leaf on the front and his personal stamp on the back. "Take these, give one each to your compatriots. If anyone refuses Naruto or any of you three service for illegitimate reasons, I want you to trace the spiral while releasing chakra into the card. This will activate a seal on a map to alert me of places that need to be... taken care of."

"Thank you Hokage-sama... and I apologize for my harshness..."

"It is I who should apologize..." Sarutobi answered quietly as he got up and walked around the desk. Shortly he had the confused fox girl pulled into a tender hug. "Please forgive a trusting old fool..."

"I always have Jii-san," Naruto whispered in the aged kage's ear, surprising the old man. Releasing the hug, he watched as Naruto left the office, passing out the cards to his friends with commands on their use. Things were about to change in Konoha, and come Heaven or Hell, it was going to be for the better.


	5. Chapter 4

Naruto sat in his living room, reviewing a lesson that Kurenai had suggested he cover again. However, his mind was miles away from the subject material, reviewing how much had changed over the weeks since he had bonded with Kyukon. In that time he'd noticed more than a few changes. First was that he wasn't alone anymore, save in his apartment. After he left in the morning, he'd meet up with Hinata at the bakery, where she would have a cinnamon roll on the way to school, and he had a crescent roll. They'd meet up with Shikamaru a block from school, and walk the rest of the way in.

During school, the three of them sat together, and tended to get put into a team. They'd eat lunch either in the classroom at the desk, while reviewing things that had been covered earlier, or talking about a new novel series about Fox, Reindeer, and Sprite they were reading. If asked, they'd all draw a blank on the name of the series, and their books would be lent out to someone.

In reality they were discussing their knight forms, and their progress in training. Naruto had gotten to the point that most of his telepathy was under control without using Kyukon's influence, and his pyrotechnic abilities have gotten into more controlled bursts of fire, instead of simple explosions. His ninja training had also picked up. Anko had taken him on as an apprentice of sorts, setting up traps and spending hours playing hide or get stabbed. So far Naruto hadn't gotten stabbed, and he was really thankful for that part. There was just one part that he was still struggling with, bunshin no jutsu. He just couldn't use little enough chakra to get it right.

Kyukon had explained it to him as if his chakra network was a series of pipes, which he knew about from having to repair the ones in his apartment regularly. His chakra to form a bunshin was like trying to fit the flow of flushing the sewer mains, into a tiny garden hose nozzle.

So, while he was trying to figure out a way to rework the flow of his chakra, he focused on the other jutsu. He had almost gotten kuwarmi down to where he didn't need the handsigns, and henge... well Kyukon made him promise to never use what he'd come up with unless she gives the okay. Otherwise, he could copy nearly anyone around, and was able to mimic them fairly well. It seemed his old practice of watching people for pranks had paid off. Speaking of pranks... his latest should be exposed right about... now...

Naruto turned his head as a frustrated cry rent the air. It would seem his time delayed prank was right on schedule, and that anyone who saw an ANBU today or tomorrow would wonder why all their clothes were bright pink, while their masks were black with white marks.

Hearing a slight giggle while Kyukon admonished him for his pranking, Naruto decided she wasn't too upset and returned to reading his scroll. It was about this time that something unexpected happened, someone knocked on his door. Blinking he looked at the door to his apartment for a moment, before another knock had him getting up and using the peephole to see who was on the other side.

He was rather surprised to find that Sasuke Uchiha was standing on the other side of the door. Opening it up he let the sole survivor of the Uchiha clan into his apartment, glad that he still had those orbs hidden, and he'd cleaned up the floor. "What do you want teme?"

"Hn... I want to know why you've suddenly gotten so good so quickly," Sasuke stated calmly while glaring at the former worst student in the class. "You've recently gone from dead last to third from the last."

"It's called studying, I've recently discovered it..." Naruto quipped back in annoyance. "Seriously, your rookie of the year position isn't being threatened by me."

"Hn..." Sasuke responded angrily before turning away and walking out. "Keep it up dobe, and you might just be competition..."

Naruto watched Sasuke's form leaving, with a stumped expression on his face, and he could feel that Kyukon wasn't entirely sure what happened either. But it seemed that Naruto had gained a rival, even if he had no clue as to why. But instead he decided to just go back to reading his taijutsu scroll. After all, there was going to be a quiz on it this week, and his form was really sloppy. He wanted to finish reading the scroll in time to go out to one of the empty training grounds and practice.

It was later, after he finished his push-ups, sit-ups, and laps that he found something odd. There was a girl with her hair done up in a pair of dango shaped buns. She seemed to have been watching him as he warmed up. "Hey there, you mind sharing?"

"Uh... no... but are you sure you want to share with me? I mean... your parents aren't going to like it..." Naruto answered nervously while scratching the back of his head.

The girl simply shrugged and set up a few training dummies. "That's fine, I'm an orphan... name's Tenten, and yours cutie?"

"Naruto..." the blonde answered with a blush, "Umm... I'm just going to go work on my taijutsu over there..."

Tenten looked at where he was pointing and then returned to setting up her dummy. "That's fine, I'm practicing my weapon skills."

Naruto set to work on his practicing his taijutsu, while the steady thunks of kunai and shurikens impacting the training dummy filled the air. It was a pleasant feel to do a kata with a audible beat, as she sped up, he'd quicken his pace. When she slowed down, he focused more on the strength instead of the speed. In a way it felt like he was dancing more than fighting, and he'd read that some taijutsu masters felt the same way.

Since he was sinking into the dance of the kata, it came as quite a surprise when a beige coated arm blocked one of his axe kicks, and a black pony-tailed head smiled back at him, causing Naruto to briefly wonder when turtles grew hair, and such huge freaking eyebrows. It was brief because soon the other boy began to go on the offensive, slow enough that Naruto could counter, but fast enough to keep pushing him harder.

After about five minutes of the sparring, the other boy retreated at the same moment Naruto fell back, both panting heavily. The steady thunks they had been using to count their strikes had stopped, and so they decided to rest as well. That's when Tenten's voice cut through the companionable silence. "Lee? What are you doing here?"

"Oh Tenten-san, I was coming out to practice my taijutsu, when I noticed..." Lee paused to look at Naruto for a moment before shrugging, "...our kohai here training hard. And just felt the need to join in. I apologize, kohai, I am Rock Lee, and it was a pleasure sparring with you."

"Name's Naruto Uzumaki," the blonde responded with a wide grin on his face. "thank you senpai, maybe you could help me figure out what I am doing wrong..."

"That sounds like an excellent idea," Tenten cut in before Lee could humbly refuse, "After all, Lee here is the best in taijutsu in our class."

"Oh wow! Really?" Naruto gushed with a huge smile. "You don't look like a genius like Sasuke, guess that means you really work hard, huh?"

Tenten arrived beside Naruto with a huge grin on her face, seeing Lee blushing and squirming like this was rare. A moment later he smiled warmly, a bit more confident in his stance. "Thank you Naruto-kun, but I do not know if I'm ready to teach another yet..."

Listening to something Kyukon was mumbling at the back of his mental connection, he decided to give it a chance. "Don't we learn more by teaching others senpai? I mean, I just moved up from being the dobe of the class... so I'm sure you have a lot you can teach me... and Tenten-senpai too, if she doesn't mind..."

"Recognizing that you can learn things from a girl, huh?" Tenten teased while Lee looked thoughtful at Naruto's words.

"Well... Kurenai-sensei and Anko-sensei have shown me that women can be as powerful, if not more powerful than a man..." Naruto answered with a smile while to Kyukon he simply added, '_And WAY more terrifying..._'

'_Hey! What am I? Chopped liver?_' Kyukon snapped back, causing Naruto to stumble over words mentally.

'_No! You are my most awesome super special and wonderful partner, but... I can't tell them who you are, can I?_'

The giggle coming from Kyukon told the prankster that he'd been set up, and wondered if he shouldn't take lessons from her sometime. Just then a loud tri-sourced grumble filled the air, causing the three academy students to blush and chuckle. "Err... how about some dinner?" Naruto offered lamely.

"Curry?" Lee asked with an eagerness of a young puppy, Naruto edged away from him, and wondered if they made a curry ramen.

"I meant more like ramen..." Naruto attempted warily, before getting a dreamy smile of his own, reminding Tenten of Lee's look right next to him.

"Naaaaaaruuuuuutooooo I'm IIIIIIIIIT!!!" a sing-song voice rang through the air, causing said orange clad blonde to look around in a panic.

"Crap! It's Anko-sensei... HIDE ME!" Naruto pleaded while running for the trees, Tenten and Lee trailing behind him as though tugged along. "Gotta hide, gotta hide, gotta hide..."

Lee looked over at Tenten curiously before asking, "Tenten-san... why is Naruto-kun running from his sensei?"

Tenten's answer was to merely shrug and continue following the blonde, until he suddenly just disappeared from view. Entering the clearing, they looked around for the day-glo orange clad blonde curiously. It was about that time that a trench-coat clad woman entered the clearing. "Hey... have you seen an orange clad, blonde haired, boy about a year younger than you run through here? We're playing Hide or get stabbed, and I'm it..." the woman explained while licking her kunai with glee.

Lee pointed to the left, while Tenten pointed right, accidentally pointing in opposite directions. Not that the woman noticed. "Thanks!" was all she said before springing off to the left.

A moment after the crazy snake summoner left the clearing a patch of the grass rose up and two hands capped over Lee and Tenten's mouths. "Thanks guys... now let's get out of here..." Naruto's voice spoke softly as the sod slid off him and settled back into place.

'_Henge Naruto, she's coming back..._' Kyukon suggested, forcing Naruto to henge into a small black cat with white socks and leaping onto Tenten's shoulder. He began rubbing against her cheeks, purring softly in what sounded like instructions to head for town.

The two still confused ninja students decided to hold off questions until after they were well away from the exhibitionist that liked to lick kunai. They'd gotten ten yards, before Anko popped up directly in front of Tenten, nearly scaring Naruto into a heart attack. "Hey, I nearly forgot... you're cute... call me in about four years..." Anko stated while slipping a card attached to a rose behind Tenten's ear. "Bye bye!"

After the woman left, Tenten looked at the little kitty Naruto, who simply shook his head and pointed to town with a paw. The walk back into the village was quiet, until they reached a restaurant that served both curry and ramen. Naruto released his henge and led the two still confused senpai into the place. Once inside, Naruto was in for a bit of a surprise as Hinata and Shikamaru were waiting for them inside. "What are you guys doing here?"

"Troublesome... K... Kurenai-sensei told us where you were heading, and that you had some new friends..." Shikamaru stated, catching slightly on the name, meaning that a more kitsune oriented informant had sang to them.

"Ah... They just met Anko-sensei..." Naruto explained when Hinata indicated the shell-shocked looks on the older two students. "So let's eat!"


	6. Chapter 5

Dinner was a curious affair, in that the younger students had to basically remind their elders how to eat properly for the first part. And then they needed to explain the deal with their teachers. "So... the one that flirted with me in the woods..." Tenten asked curiously while playing with her wonton soup.

"Anko-sensei." the three younger ones answered in resigned unison, each one bearing a look of resignation born of weeks of knowing her.

"And the one I haven't met yet? Kurenai-sensei?" Tenten continued with barely missing a beat. "Is she like Anko?"

"No... she... she is m...much c...calmer..." Hinata stated nervously, as the only one without something in her mouth, almost as though afraid of the woman popping out at any moment. Shikamaru and Naruto both seemed to be on the lookout for something that she couldn't quite figure out.

"Pardon, but why do you seem to be on the lookout for her?" Lee asked curiously while looking around for the source of the younger academy student's discomfort. He couldn't discern the source, but he figured it had to be close for them to be reacting in such a manner.

"As troublesome as it sounds, she has a way to pop up at the wrong moment, and with us talking of Anko flirting..." Shikamaru started with a heavy sigh, before taking a sip of his tea.

"I'm likely to pop up right behind you at any moment, aren't I?" a strange woman with black hair, red eyes, and a dress seemingly made out of wraps turned around in the seat directly behind Shikamaru. The three students that knew her sat bolt upright, and let out little whimpers of terror. "Now... what was this about Anko flirting with someone here..."

As Tenten found the red eyes locking on her, she calmly figured out what she thought of as the best solution. Well calm for one that swore she felt her life pass before her eyes. She reached over the table, pulled the still petrified Naruto across the piece of furniture and used him as a human shield. "ASK HIM! HE KNOWS I DIDN'T FLIRT BACK!"

Naruto nodded rapidly in agreement, as though afraid that if he didn't one or the other of the women would shred him to pieces. Shikamaru and Hinata both left money on the table before deciding to exit from view the fastest way they knew. Sliding down onto the ground under the table, they pulled the somewhat confused Lee under the table with them.

"Oh? So he was with you when Anko was being flirty, hmm? That's good to know..." Kurenai responded with a slight growl to her voice. Naruto felt tears rolling down his cheeks as he knew that he was going to be in trouble now. He was very glad that he had his will made out at the request of the Hokage, so his ramen cup collection would go to a worthy person.

Kurenai gave her a small smile, before standing up and walking out of the restaurant. Naruto looked at the exit, and then back at Tenten before smiling sheepishly. "Ano... Tenten-senpai... would you like me to get out of your soup?"

A quick release, and exchange of apologies later, the quint of shinobi-in-training went to go and get Naruto a change of clothing. It was a simple matter of piling everyone into the living room/kitchen, and Naruto disappearing into the back to change pants. Unfortunately there were a few issues with the changing of said clothes.

First was the fact that he was out of clean jumpsuits, so he had to dig under his bed until he found a box he kept the clothes he got from Iruka and the Hokage on his birthdays. For some reason that was all he got for the last few years, but his jumpsuit fit him best, and he had more of them than anything else.

While he was tugging out the box with his non-jumpsuit clothes in, the second part occurred. The corner of the box, struck a bo-staff he had picked up for training with, which in turn knocked over a tumbler of marbles he'd forgotten about long ago, that in turn upset a resident living ramen entity that had evolved under his bed from a cup of ramen that he had left unfinished, that in turn threw the first thing that it could reach at the intruder. Naruto ducked aside as the box of orbs flew past his head, instantly regretting it as it passed through the open doorway and smashed into the far wall.

Luckily the lid only popped off a little bit, and none of the symbiotic orbs fell out.

Unfortunately for the young knights, Tenten and Lee were just wandering to the door to ask for the location of the restroom and decided to peek inside the box. A moment later, thoughts of the restroom were forgotten as two orbs practically leaped out of the box and latched onto the two curious pre-gennin.

Lee's transformation was the first to occur, a swirl of yellow and black burst forth from the orb, coating the entire body of the surprised taijutsu specialist. As fast as the orb was, Lee seemed to manage to stay ahead of it for a few seconds, before he backed into the wall, and it snared his arm. The black parts of the orb formed spots across his body, while the yellow turned into course short fur. Feline ears with black lining grew at the top of Lee's head, while twin trails from his eyes ran down along his newly formed muzzle. The body that resulted from the bonding was one made for speed. "Pardreportingfordutyma'am!"

Tenten's transformation was a bit more interesting to watch, as it lashed out with silver chains of itself to surround the startled weapons mistress in training. Two chains snared her wrists, while another pair looped around her ankles, and a final one looped lazily about her throat. As it pulled the chains back into itself, the orb began to expand swiftly, engulfing the woman. The silver soon coated the entire form of Tenten, giving her a shiny and curvy form that left the males present a bit speechless and blushing. Over her entire body was a series of chains and minor spikes. It seemed to pause a moment, before sighing and letting a golden vest and shorts surface from its depths, granting some modesty. Shortly after they solidified fully, she turned towards Naruto and bowed deeply.

"My lady Kyuukon," a ringing metallic voice rasped out softly as she gathered the chains about her, forming a shawl with their doubled lengths. "I, Zahava, am ready to serve you once again."

Naruto sighed as Kyukon took over his form once again, submitting to the ritual of greeting that had been established. Meanwhile, Hinata and Shikamaru attempted to work out what exactly they were going to say to their teachers and the Hokage about this.

"Welcome knights..." Kyuukon answered after she appeared, smiling warmly at the new arrivals. "Please recede back into your dormant states... our hosts have much to discuss... But first Zahava... if you wouldn't mind capturing the creature under my host's bed?"

While Zahava sent forth strands of liquid metal, under the bed. Pard reverted to Lee, who blinked owlishly. "That... was most unusual..."

"Yeah, that's nothing compared to what's next..." Naruto stated while joining Hinata and Shikamaru in the living room. Absently he noticed that his pants were now dry, and filed that away for future reference.

Shikamaru sighed and leaned against the wall, while rubbing his face in annoyance. "As troublesome as it is... we need to tell the Hokage and our teachers..." the genius stated before Tenten came in holding a cage of some strange metal he couldn't identify with a thrashing ramen beast inside. "And probably about that thing too..."

"Mind if I skip out on this one?" Naruto asked pleadingly, while looking like someone has just threatened to cut off his ramen supply for a few years. The looks from the other two established knights answered his question rather bluntly, before Hinata turned away with a huge blush on her cheeks.

"I... I think that w...we m...might w...want to g...go as a g...group..." Hinata stuttered out while trying to quell the blush on her cheeks. "I...It w...would be... easier..."

"Before that... What is going on?" Tenten asked calmly while setting the cage down and toying with her new jelly bracer. "What are these things? And how did they come out of those balls? And why am I now hearing a voice in my head?"

"They're orb knights. Not sure on that. And you get used to them..." Naruto answered in turn, while Shikamaru and Hinata simply nodded in support. "They'll tell you more, so be sure to listen."

"Right..." Tenten responded as though forcing herself to not completely freak out. By the twitching of her hand near the kunai pouch, it would appear to be failing.

"My partner Pard... he is rather... Energetic..." Lee mused with a mystified look to his face.

"From what Shiroshika tells me... he is somewhat on a permanent sugar high... Sounds troublesome..." Shikarmaru answered from his spot against a wall. "Especially with you two graduating this year... means your third teammate will either have to be told and tested, or you will have to keep it a secret from them..."

"And how do you figure we'll be on the same team?" Tenten asked curiously, finally pulling her hand away from the kunai pouch on her thigh. "We don't even know our final rankings yet..."

"Tch..." the shadow user clicked before smirking. "Can't you figure it out? The Hokage is most likely going to try and centralize us into as few teams as possible, to keep us as secret weapons."

"Besides, we already have Kurenai-sensei and Anko-sensei teaching us, it makes sense that they'll be pulled in when we graduate..." Naruto added with a smile of his own.

"A...and it means that you can support each other should something happen with your symbiont..." Hinata added softly, surprising her two classmates at the lack of stuttering.

Tenten and Lee glanced at each other and after a few minutes shrugged, figuring they could get used to each other. Sure Tenten was a little obsessed with weapons for the chakra challenged boy, and so what if Lee didn't like sharp, pointy, stabby, fun, fun things? They could work with each other just fine. They'd just have to find someone able to use a variety of jutsu that they didn't have an interest in, that they could trust, in order to complete the team. A teacher that could understand them wouldn't hurt in the least.

With no further questions, the topic returned to the discussion about how to approach the Hokage about this little situation. Naruto suggested them just telling him, while Shikamaru suggested being a bit more tactful, and starting with the ramen beast currently trying to eat its way out of the cage.

The entire group agreed that starting with the potentially insane and lethal beast might be the best way to go, so he could figure out what to do with that before getting hit by the latest incident. Carrying the cage between them, they took a short walk to the Hokage tower. When they got there, they had a short wait in the lobby, where the secretary kept forcing candy on them. Even the ramen beast got some, which caused it to quiet down. Apparently whatever that taffy stuff she had given it was, it served to silence the creature no loving god would have intended.

A few minutes later they were let into the office, with Kurenai and the Hokage waiting for them. Anko was also present, but she was facing the corner with her head hung in shame, so the younger trio knew that she wasn't going to be playing much of a role. "Ah Naruto-kun... and who are your friends?"

"This is Tenten-senpai and Lee-senpai... And we caught this thing we want you to look at..." Naruto answered while holding up the cage for the Hokage to look into. Inside he found the ramen beast contently chewing on the taffy. After a moment it looked up at him and waved what appeared to be a hand, made entirely out of noodles. The Hokage did the reasonable thing and tried to dispel a genjutsu. When he heard Kurenai muttering the release word next to him, he knew that she was seeing it as well.

"Naruto-kun... what is this?"

"Well... we were kinda hoping you could tell us... We found it under my bed when it threw the box of orbs at the wall..." Naruto answered while petting the ramen beast, which started burbling and cooing disturbingly.

"It used to be ram..." Sarutobi started before what Naruto mentioned sank in. "I see... Kurenai, Anko, these two will be joining the others for remedial lessons..."

"Awww can't I get a super cool tentacle beast creature to bond with me?" Anko whined from her corner, only to get spanked by Kurenai's sandal from clear across the room.

"Naruto, you three are going to be spending next week after school scrubbing every floor of the Hokage tower," Sarutobi continued without missing much of a beat. He ignored the moans of the three younger children. "And I suppose the care of... this creature will fall to the seven of you..."

"Can we call it Orby? He can be our mascot!" Naruto asked while tickling the ramen beast, who seemed to approve of the name. Everyone else was just a little disturbed by the fact that the creature was acting more like a pet than an abomination brought to life.

While all this was being discussed, ideas were whirling about in one of the most dangerous locations in all of Konoha. For once Anko had an idea in mind, there was little to no chance of getting it out. And right now, she wanted her own orb.


	7. Chapter 6

Hey folks, as you might have noticed, the updates are going to be slower now that I've worked past my built up supply of chapters. I'll try to keep production roughly weekly on Orbs and Jokes, but Mage Knight is likely to fall back to a bi-weekly/monthly update.

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Thankfully for the pre-gennin squad, the week passed by without any further problems. Aside from Naruto being chased by Anko, while she hunts him down to stab him. All in all, a rather lazy week of classes, scrubbing the floors of the Hokage tower, training, life and death games of hide and seek, and lots of take out.

If one didn't know better, they'd have sworn the kids were college students.

But one of their instructors had not been having an easy week of things. First she went over to Naruto's apartment, and used her snakes to try and find the box with those wonderful, beautiful, magical, ultra-special, shiny killy-kill-kill orbs inside. Okay, so saying that Anko is a few grains short of a rice ball, would be like saying that Orochimaru has a slight preference to young, underage boys, an understatement by orders of magnitude.

But the snakes reported that other than a slight trace of them under the bed, and against the wall where it hit, there was no trace of them. And thus the next day Anko tore apart his apartment with abandon, replacing everything after she was done. Her investigation was cut short when she heard a key in the lock of the door. Panicking she did one of the easiest things for a ninja to do, she hid.

Even though she was absolutely certain she'd gotten everything back exactly as she had found them, Naruto noticed that things were amiss. Anko watched him from the ceiling as he began with an almost compulsive nature putting everything back in what he saw as order.

As he was walking out, he looked up at her and shook his finger teasingly. "Now, now Anko-sensei, I'm not hiding them here anymore, so no need to worry."

Anko's jaw went slack as the brat simply walked off laughing. But he had given her a big clue, they weren't here, so she'd just have to check through the other student's housing. This she could manage easily enough with her shadow clones. Another clue he'd given was he was just as adept at finding people as hiding. Good thing to know for his training.

The next day it was Tenten's place, and while she was far neater than Naruto could even hope to be, there was still a small surprise waiting for Anko when she got there. Tenten had a cat.

Thinking back to the day she had flirted with the bun-haired brunette she remembered this cat. It was black with white markings on its paws. If she didn't know better, she would have sworn that damn cat was watching her with a twinkle of mirth in its eyes. It even seemed to be laughing at her for the entire time she went over Tenten's place with a fine toothed comb. Finding nothing, she let out a grunt of frustration. Her escape from the apartment was cut short however, when Tenten returned home. And thus she hid in the only place she could think of. Unfortunately for her, the only place she could think of was the cat's bed, and the cat seemed to like digging its claws into her poor scalp as it settled into place.

As visions of cat-swallowing snakes danced in her head, Anko made her escape when Tenten and that damn cat went out to eat for the night. Her next stop was the hospital to get patched up from the feline claw marks now decorating her face. No one asked any questions, but for some reason the Tora mission got bumped up a position in D-ranked missions, currently it was just shy of being a C-ranked mission.

Getting back to her lonely, empty, cold apartment, she wondered when Kurenai would be letting her sleep over again. It's not like it was her fault that girls are cute, and she liked planning for the future. Was it?

Throwing a kunai into the Orochimaru shaped voo-doo dart board of ultra shiny, super sparkly doom, she smirked as it embedded itself in his groin. Alone time would be meaningless now. Slumping down on her couch, she idly played with the chained-shackles hanging down out of her wall. Not only had Kurenai yelled at her for hours, but now she was grounded from having snu-snu fun times with her girlfriend for a whole week. And to make it worse, NO DANGO! Kurenai had used a favor from the Hokage to get her banned from all the dango stands in Konoha for the entire week.

And her search for the orbs was going nowhere fast. Her clones that had gone to Shikamaru's and Lee's places had found nothing. While the one that she had sent to Kurenai's where Hinata was stay had found something... a boot to the head was not what she had been hoping for.

It just wasn't FAIR! She was the super awesome kick-ass kunoichi with the ultra-special snake summoning jutsus. Why was a pre-gennin beating her every attempt at getting her own squishy, cuddly, slimy, oozy tentacle raping monster to coat her entire body?

And yes, in her own mind, that made perfect sense.

Since it wasn't in any of the locations that she could get to easily enough, she supposed that the next step would be to covertly observe the blonde, to see if he would lead her to the orbs. He would have to check on them occasionally, to ensure that none of them had gone missing after all, right?

Getting up at midnight, to watch the boy's apartment seemed to pay off right away, as she found out that he got up at four in the morning to go on a jog around Konoha, then he did sit-ups, push-ups, and other exercises for nearly two hours. He was barely breathing hard when he was finished, making her wonder just how much stamina the boy had, for she knew it was a workout that would have left many a gennin out of breath, whining and complaining in the dirt. After that came breakfast at Ichiraku's, where he proceeded to eat his weight in ramen.

If it wasn't for the chef adding extra vegetables and meat to Naruto's bowls, she would have sworn that he couldn't possibly have enough vitamins and other healthy thingies, whatever they were called, in his system to last as long as he had. After that came the academy, which was always wonderfully fun and entertaining to watch.

After two classes, she was not enjoying herself. Her cute, precious, little blonde ball of sunshine was being targeted by the teachers. In the first one, the teacher yelled at him every time he raised his hand to ask a question, and even kicked him out, right before teaching something critical for his development. And then the second one had a test, but gave Naruto a test that was at least two grade levels over his classmates. What surprised her was that he got more than two-thirds of them right.

But after he was done, the majority of the ones he'd gotten right had been marked as wrong, and NONE of the wrong ones were corrected. He was being purposefully mis-instructed, and mis-graded. Oh yeah, the idiots were treating him like they would have if she was their student. But the third teacher was a vast improvement, he was fair, honest, and beyond that cute. Now she'd known Iruka for a few years now, but seeing him with his students was something new and precious.

He was so sweet, tender, and feminine when one of them stole his hair tie and his hair fell loose down over his face. She might just have to get him a dress and heels, and put him in the path of one porn-loving jounin, named Kakashi Hatake. They'd be cute together.

Then came lunch, which Naruto used as a chance to skip classes, after he left, Shikamaru and Hinata looked at each other and nodded, before joining him. The trio went out to a long abandoned training ground in the part of town that was still rebuilding from the Kyuubi invasion. No one lived here, so it would make an excellent location to be alone.

It was at that moment that Naruto did something she hadn't expected, he let out a scream of rage and shot a huge fireball at a boulder melting it. It seemed that he was sick of holding it in. His two friends she could see hiding at the edges of the clearing while he vented on every boulder in the area. Watching him, she reflected on the dark days following Orochimaru's betrayal of the village. She had been targeted like he was, but she at least had the benefit of not being an academy student.

She was going to have to watch over him a little more closely, and those other two brats as well, probably the older pair as well. And learn to dodge Nai-chan's shoes, she had a lot of lethal and highly painful shoes and sandals that she was brutally accurate with.

Oh, he was on the move again. Tracking him while not as a part of the game was actually far easier than she had thought. He was going back to school... why would he...

Oh, it was Iruka's class time, and he was covering traps. For some reason she just couldn't muster up any amount of surprise at his interest in that. For the second time that day, he wasn't the target for the teachers, but rather a classmate, one with a font of practical knowledge in traps. Some of what she was reading off his lips, _**she**_ hadn't even thought of, a few of which she'd have to try on Nai-chan sometime.

And she'd have to check into what the boy was reading, because she was fairly certain that Kinbaku was a subject matter he shouldn't have learned yet. And from the ever increasing blush on Iruka, the teacher agreed with the sentiment.

OH, see, there's what she was expecting from most of the class, almost all of them had a rather substantial nosebleed going, save for the Uchiha, who was writing down notes. He was also substituting male pronouns and words for the female ones Naruto used occasionally, but she wouldn't break the news about his orientation just yet. She felt there was some cosmic force out to show the entire Elemental Nations, and beyond just who Sasuke was meant to be with.

For some odd reason Naruto and Sasuke both shivered and looked around, swearing that someone had just started plotting yaoi stories, and art about them.

After school, Naruto and his two classmates walked to the Hokage tower with Tenten and Lee, talking about random topics. Academy students were boring, all they talked about were tests, training, ramen, curry, and weapons. Okay, so the fact that Tenten seemed more than a little turned on about the topic of weapons caught her attention, but it was too cute to interrupt them about that.

Her musings were cut off when she noticed suddenly that she wasn't exactly alone. Turning her head slightly she found red eyes bearing down on her with an expression she couldn't quite read. "Now... Nai-chan... this isn't what it looks like..."

"Oh? It looks like you're watching over our little students..." Kurenai answered while pointing to the group of pre-gennin separating at the entrance to the Hokage tower. After Tenten and Lee had gained a little distance from the tower, the genjutsu expert continued. "Why don't you stick around here and watch over the younger ones? I'm going to talk with the older two..."

"Sounds good..." Anko answered before leaping away towards the tower, if it kept her off Kurenai's bad side, she'd have volunteered to leap into Orochimaru's lap dressed up as a little boy... again.

Finding the group of students scrubbing the fifth floor, she smiled as she noticed that the two were careful to keep Naruto flanked at all times, and prevented more than a few people from messing up the work the blonde was doing. They also kept up a lively and cheerful conversation throughout the entire time. It was a very pleasant and heartwarming scene if she'd admit it to herself, until she overheard Shikamaru speaking up. "So where did you hide those troublesome orbs Naruto? Anko-sensei has been very troublesome in searching for the box of them..."

The orange clad academy student snickered as he continued scrubbing the floor. "It's somewhere she'll never be able to get to... The Hokage himself gave me the storage scroll, and it's linked to my chakra."

Anko cursed under her breath at that. If the brat was linked to it, only he could open the damn scroll and pull out the orbs. Which in a way made sense, after all he was the leader of the knights, she was just the teacher. But she wanted an orb, and she'd rape him if she had to get it...

For some reason, two girls felt an unyielding desire to strangle their more exotic sensei, but had no idea why.

Hinata looked over at the smiling blond with a nervous frown. For some reason Enganxa was screaming her head off for the elimination of Anko-sensei, and the only word she could understand otherwise was Naruto. He was still up ahead of her, scrubbing the floor. She had to admit one thing, despite the raging voice in her crying out for blood, death, and ruin. Naruto had a nice ass.

Shikamaru looked up and found that Hinata had stopped working, one look at the drool had him wondering what was going on, following her eyes gave him the answer. She was staring at Naruto's backside again. While he had to admit that even before the bonding, Hinata hadn't exactly kept her feelings for the blonde a secret, now... he was fairly certain that she was getting so blatant that it was almost a miracle that Naruto hadn't noticed yet.

A miracle in the sense that the two females on the team had a troublesome crush on their leader. And judging from Anko-sensei's recent activities, she wasn't to be counted out yet either. And if Anko-sensei were to hop that particular fence, could Kurenai-sensei be far behind? At least Naruto was taking all the troublesome attention from the girls, meant that he and Lee wouldn't have problems with them, unless they wronged the blonde somehow.

Naruto for his part, was thinking about ramen. But what could you expect? He was hungry.


	8. Chapter 7

Anko sighed as she entered her cold, dark, lonely apartment after an entire week of stalking her students to find out where the orbs could be, and how badly Naruto was being screwed over. Ten out of ten shops that attempted to screw him were visited within an hour by the ANBU's IRS team. Being the tough, and ultra-super skilled kunoichi she was, she did the best thing she could think of when facing the nerdiest division of the ANBU.

She slipped away into the shadows and ran as fast as her chakra enhanced legs could carry her. She was an awesome ninja, but NOBODY would mess with the IRS, not unless they wanted to be completely and utterly destitute by the end of the day.

Chucking a kunai at her dart board she smiled as it caught him in the stomach. He'll probably have some gut problems. Not that she cared, she just wanted Kureai to let her come over again, this apartment sucked... only one thing made it worth keeping. Entering her room, she smiled as she hugged her stuffed Kuddle Kitties collection, and settled in on her Pretty Princess Pillow Pussy Plush collection, which after getting the entire group of them turned into the ultimate soft and cuddly couch, for a five year old... so for her it made a nice comfy chair.

Picking up her Kunoichi Sanrio-chan doll she pouted as she folded in on herself. "Those mean, stupid villagers are making a big mistake... If it wasn't for Naruto being such an awesome cutie, he'd have gone Kyuubi on their asses long ago. Jeez, ya'd think they'd have more faith in the Fourth's seal, huh Neko-chan?"

Acting as though she was listening to her doll, she sighed and pouted. "No, I'm not plotting to get revenge, you know me better than that... I promised Nai-chan I'd be good..."

"It's not fair though..." Anko continued, sniffing as tears stung her eyes. "They're treating him like me when that jerk Orochimaru abandoned me to die with his stupid cursed seal..."

Acting as though she was being scolded by the doll, she humphed and turned her head away. "No I will not take that back, he was a jerk, and a big, mean, poopy head!"

Hugging the white plush cat doll close, she wiped the tears that were rolling down her cheeks. "I'm sorry Sanrio-chan... I know you don't like when I use mean words..." Anko answered back to some silent phrase it had offered up. "But those villagers keep blaming me for everything that was his fault... and poor Naruto didn't even do anything either... and I can't do anything to help but be there when he lets us help..."

Falling silent, she picked up her Teenaged Mutant Ninja Kittens water bottle and took a long drink of the Catnip Brand Juice. Silently she thought that if anyone else knew about her secret obsession with cute, children friendly cat merchandise, shows, and stories, she would never again be able to show her face in public again. So far only four people knew about her obsession. The Hokage (gave her the first movie for the Kuddle Kitties when she was ten), Orochimaru (never quite got it), Kurenai (Her supplier), and herself.

It was during her meditation on her secret that she found herself being interrupted by a knock on her front door. Putting Sanrio-chan back down carefully, she exited her room, making sure to shut the door. Not many people knocked on her door, but even if it was one that knew her secret, she didn't want to risk its exposure.

Getting to her front door, she slammed it open and hiked a kunai ready to strike down the fool who dared to approach her sanctuary. The decent was cut off by a single well manicured finger pressing against her wrist long before she could begin its decent. "Let me in Anko..."

Gulping deeply, she stepped back, flicking the kunai into her dart board, sadly she couldn't take a look to see where it hit, because Kurenai was matching her step for step, and she did not look happy. Thinking quickly, she tried to imagine what she could have possibly done to upset Kurenai this much, and could only whimper as too many things came to mind to even attempt to narrow down.

When the door clicked behind Kurenai, Anko was stunned when the woman kissed her lightly on the nose, and smiled brightly. Oh yeah, she was so very screwed right now it wasn't even in the same space-time continuum as funny. "N...Nai-chan... I can explain... r...re...really I can..."

"That's fine dear," Kurenai stated calmly with an almost blissful state of being as she drifted over to the couch, and sat down. "Now then..."

"DRINKS!" Anko shouted in a panic, before heading to the kitchen, "You want some tea I bet... I've got some of your favorite calming jasmine tea in here... How about I put it on... and maybe get you some snacks too... and uhh... oh yeah, I have your favorite cakes..."

"Anko... we need to talk..." Kurenai stated, freezing the snake summoner in her tracks. She hated those words with a passion to rival even her hatred for Orochimaru. Those four words NEVER brought about anything good. Turning around, she saw that same caring smile on Kurenai's face, and knew she was doomed.

"Nai-chan... please... we can work it out... really we can..." Anko started, only to be cut off by a shake of Kurenai's head. "It's Asuma, isn't it? I swear, I didn't do nothing to him! And besides, I already said I understood if you wanted to see him too..."

"It's not that Anko, it's..." Kurenai started, being cut off by a pleading Anko.

"If it's about the dango stand incident, I only did it because I was going through withdrawals again, you know how I get without my dango..."

"No love, not that, it's abou..."

Anko cut her off again as she began pacing about, wearing a hole in the flooring. "If it's not that, is it about those rumors? I swear I didn't start them, and I'll hunt down whoever did!"

"What rumors?" Kurenai asked curiously, before sighing and shaking her head. "No Anko, it's not that... What I came over to talk to you about wa..."

"If it's about my flirting, I'm working to stop that, really I am... I stopped flirting with Tenten, and any girl below Chuunin or civilian girls under 18... well she said she was 19... And I only gave her directions anyhow, the flirting just slipped out, you know how I am and I didn't mean to, so please don't be mad over that, I'm working on it..." Anko started rambling, only to be cut off by Kurenai pulling a shiny new DVD case out of a storage seal she placed on her wraps.

Anko's eyes locked on the DVD case as though laser guided, following its every motion up, down, left, and right, as Kurenai moved it around. "As I was saying Anko... was we need to talk about your recent actions with our students..." Kurenai stated calmly as she flipped the DVD case over, showing its super-ultra rare collector's card on the back, still mint in the wrapper. "I'm very proud of you."

That brought Anko out of her trance like running into a brick wall. Proud, of stalking her students to find the orbs? That didn't sound quite right. "P...proud? I... I didn't do anything to be proud about..." Anko started defending herself nervously.

"No? You've taken a special interest lately in the living conditions of our young charges, and even in how Konoha has been treating them. I have to admit, I was a little worried about you accepting this responsibility..." Kurenai explained with a proud little smile on her face, casually she held out the DVD to Anko, for the snake summoner to take. "Here's a little gift for being such a good teacher... and you can come over again starting tomorrow."

Anko squealed with glee as she leaped over and glomped her girlfriend, kissing her lips passionately. Hey, she was getting her happy, fun-fun sex time back, and the latest Kuddle Kittens movie out of obsessing over her students and the orbs, she had to take the chance that the world was going to end any second now, while she could.

Pulling back, Anko took the DVD and with great care and precision began trying to remove the seals on the DVD case. After ten minutes she finally had to admit defeat and held it out to Kurenai with a mega pout. "Naaaaaaiiii-chaaaaaan.... it won't ooooopeeeeeeeen!!"

Kurenai let out a small chuckle as she easily removed the sticky plastic preventing Anko from her precious DVD and collector's card. Handing the case back to Anko, she smiled as the snake summoner looked at the card and squealed like a fangirl. Apparently having Naruto pick out the lucky case was a good idea. "Nai-chan! I got it! I got it! It's Mrs. Fluffykins the Persian!"

"That's the full set, isn't it?" Kurenai mused with a playful smile. "And all still in the wrappers..."

"Oh yeah! It is! Sweet!" Anko squealed while rushing off to add the card and DVD to her collection. "Oh this is so awesome Nai-chan! Thank you-!"

Kurenai laughed as she realized once again why exactly Anko lived in this apartment building all alone in the middle of the destroyed section of the village. It kept her dirty little secret very secret. She even pays extra to rent out the rest of the apartments in the building, which she uses to house her snakes with a lot of sun lamps.

There was a lot about the special jounin that most people overlooked, mostly because of the sheer levels of batshit crazy that rolled off her in waves. The fact she loved her pretty, childish cat collections, the tenderness she showed to her snakes, and the little ticklish spot that Kurenai was now kissing with a feather's lightness.

Anko melted as Kurenai kissed and nibbled her ears lightly, there was no chance she could resist this tender torture, and Kurenai knew that better than anyone on the planet. "Naruto gave us a gift love... would you like to see it?"

"Naaaaai-chaaaaan... not in front of the kitties..." Anko moaned as she felt herself being dragged out. "My movie..."

"We can watch it later love... I'll even wear those footie pajamas you like..."

Anko's mind drifted off to the exact pair she was considering at the moment. They were skin tight black footie pajamas with cat ears and tails, and a white belly and 'paws'. The mental image was more than enough to release any lingering hesitation on Anko's part.

Anko was placed on the couch while Kurenai pulled two boxes out of her storage seal 'pockets', handing one over to Anko. The snake summoner found a small circle with the words 'chakra here' printed carefully in the center. She had to laugh at how cute he was being.

Figuring if it was a trap, she could just punish him with impunity later, maybe she'd even get Nai-chan in on it too. Placing her finger on the spot, she gently poured a little chakra into the box. After a second she felt a curious weight build inside, and the lid pop open. Lifting the lid off she looked inside and nearly dropped it as she and Kunrenai gasped in shock. Inside, sitting as though it had been there forever was a single orb each.

Even before they could blink, the orbs launched themselves out of the boxes and swarmed over the bodies of the two stunned women. Before Anko and Kurenai knew what was going on, they were speaking out loud.

"Well Willow, this is new..." Anko's body stated while looking over her black and cream striped form, paying careful attention to the oversized paws at the end of her arms. "My host body has an... odd idea of a cat's form..."

"Indeed Fuwa-chan..." Willow whispered softly into the felinoid's ear, causing her to jump off the couch and nearly claw up the woman formed of living wood. 'Fuwa' took a moment to glare at Willow before turning away in a huff. "Sorry kitten... I didn't mean anything by it..."

"I'm not fluffy!" the cat hissed out while pouting heavily, drawing a bemused chuckle from the dryad.

"No of course not dear, you live up to your name Princess Hebineko..." Willow answered soothingly, causing the cat's head to swell with pride, only to deflate the ego with a lead weight when she finished, "...Flufferkins"

"GAH! WHY! Why did that scientist have to let his daughter name me!" Hebineko bemoaned her name once again. It was just so undignified...

While Willow tried to comfort her partner, something was stirring deep in the depths of the world. In a dark, cave, terrible forces were waking up from ancient slumbers to plot and scheme against the world far above. However, they weren't important, let's instead look at the villainous entities for this story. In a pleasant sea-side cove where the sun was shining, and the palm trees swayed there was a evil being of an unknown form sunning itself. "Hmm... they're waking up..." it mused quietly, before summoning forth a couple small minions. "Go and play with those Orb things..."


	9. Chapter 8

Three months later found the Orb Knights in a new and curious situation that they had never been in before. Nearly at kunai point to take the test for early graduation from Kurenai-sensei. They would have expected it from Anko-sensei, but from Kurenai-sensei it was downright terrifying.

"Ya know guys... I think we should have stopped complaining about training..." Naruto offered while looking back to see Kurenai glaring at the five of them fidgeting in their seats. Iruka sat a good distance from her, feeling the chill air rolling off her in waves.

"I believe that you are right Naruto-kohai... or it may have been the prank last week..." Lee offered while staring straight forward, his back straight as a board. "I mean we did manage to have all of the jounins save Anko-sensei and Kurenai-sensei stuck in a lecture by that jounin Gai-san... His lectures on the power of youth while motivating were... a little disturbing..."

Tenten kept staring straight ahead, a slight twitch to her eye as she wanted to play with her kitty now. But nooooo Kurenai-sensei had forbidden her playing with the kitten until she graduated from the academy, on the threat of revealing to Anko exactly who that kitten was. It wasn't fair, she had only been in a secondary player in the prank... it's not like she had placed any of the glue or anything, okay so maybe she did, on a few dozen seats... but it wasn't like she'd been the one to get Gai to start the speech... she had helped Hinata there.

Okay, so maybe they were all as guilty as sin, but she wanted her kitty!

Hinata, was just grinning proudly that she had gotten all of the jounins of the Hyuuga family stuck on her own. And the best part of that was that her father and many of the others needed their hair cut off to release them. She liked this feeling of righteous vengeance that had swelling in her chest. That and her last physical had shown something else in that region was developing nicely. So all in all, it was a good week, now if she could only get Naruto to fall in love with her, then it would be perfect.

Shikamaru was... sleeping, but hey it was only fair, his mother had nagged him so much last night that he only got eight hours of sleep.

"Well then, this is highly unusual... normally we would not allow any student barely through their first years to attempt the graduation exams, but due to your unique circumstances, the Hokage has allowed this testing..." Iruka started, waking Shikamaru up in the process. "Is there anyone that feels they are not ready, please speak up now..."

Five hands started to raise from their places on the desk in front of the attached bodies, when suddenly an icy chill gripped their spines with an iron force and reminded them gently that failure, or even surrendering were _**NOT**_ an option today.

"I see... well since you have all agreed to continue with the testing... let's begin shall we? Oh and if you fail, Kurenai-san here has requested that I make note of where you need improvement, and shall supply you with supplementary lessons. Isn't that nice of her?" Iruka asked, wondering only briefly why the students paled more at the mention of supplementary lessons. He probably should have asked the Hokage to reconsider, since only Tenten was even remotely near the top of her class, the rest fell nearer to the bottom.

"Let's begin then... Hinata, if you'd follow me please..." Iruka offered with a kind smile on his face.

Three hours later, all five members of the terrified band of ninja hopefuls were looking at the brand shiny new hitai-ate on their foreheads. The biggest surprise had been that the Hokage himself had been there to present them the new protectors personally, each one getting his biggest smile. However as they compared it to the one on Iruka's forehead, they noticed a small difference. Each of theirs had a tiny hemisphere cut out of the center of their spirals.

"Congratulations Orb Knights..." the Hokage announced, breaking them out of their huddle of confusion. "As you've noticed, your hitai-ate are different than normal ones... That is because I feel that you will have things to face, that mere shinobi are unable to stand against. Bear these as a mark of honor that you stand among Konoha's shinobi forces, but that each of you hold a bond together that others cannot break. Yuhi-chan and Mitarashi-chan will both attend you as jounin advisers, but I believe you will work best as an autonomous unit. When you are ready, please select a leader."

Four of the five stepped back and shoved the fifth forward, pointing at the still startled individual. Slowly they looked back at the four that had shoved them and sweat dropped. "Uhhh guys... not that I'm not honored... but I really think Shikamaru or Tenten would be better..."

"Congratulations Naruto, you shall be the first one I contact about the Orb Knights..." Sarutobi stated with a beaming smile as the blonde tried to get the others to reconsider.

"Now usually we would break you into groups of three, but I feel that this team will better serve as a whole... for now you will serve under Kurenai and Anko's joint leadership, but once you advance sufficiently in ranks, which I expect to be soon, you will be commanded by Naruto," the Hokage continued, still beaming the devil's own smile at the blonde in question.

"Also, we usually have a test to demonstrate that the genin can work together... I believe recent events... have shown you five more than capable..." the Hokage finished while Iruka and Kurenai both chuckled, remembering the fact that all the jounins were stuck to their chairs during Gai's lecture. Okay so it was funny, when it happened to someone else, but they had to punish them. "You may begin reporting for missions tomorrow morning, unless your instructor wishes for you to train more."

Every single one of the newly minted knights began praying and hoping to any deity that they could think of that they could go on nice safe missions, away from the training ground of pain and agony that they had been attending for the past three months. Even if they had to clean out the sewers with toothbrushes, they would do so with a smile on their faces and a song in their hearts. ANYTHING to get out of training with a pissed Kurenai and Anko.

"Unless we have some... unforeseen issue, I believe we shall see you tomorrow Hokage-sama... right knights?" Kurenai asked with a icy tone that chilled the five fresh faced genin to their very cores.

"Right ma'am!" The five chorused their response, driven primarily by sheer terror.

That night, Neji Hyuuga was fuming in his room. His nothing of a cousin had managed to beat him in graduating the academy, and not only her, but the dead last of her year, a slacker, the dead last chakra-less wonder of his year, and the one girl that he actually considered a worthy potential teammate for him. He would admit that she had been growing in strength during their spars, but fate had decreed him to remain the victor, or so he thought.

He couldn't understand it, how had that group of losers, and Tenten, gotten so good? To hear Hinata talk about it, she hadn't even wanted to graduate, let alone get a special hitai-ate for her own group of genin. It just grated on his nerves so much that a mere nothing of the main family could so easily best the paragon of the branch family.

"_**Wouldn't you love to beat her? Take her special little hitai-ate from her and prove that you deserve to be the better?**_" a voice whispered at the edges of his consciousness. A snarl formed on Neji's face as he ground his teeth angrily. "_**I bet she cheated... she must have had special help...**_"

"Yeah... that's right, she had to have had help..." Neji muttered to no one in particular as he wrung his hands together. "But if that is so... then fate has decided to deny me my chance at winning freedom from the main family's accursed rule over the branch family..."

"_**I could show you the power that she has...**_" the voice offered while a strange warmth curled around his neck, "_**Just say yes...**_"

Neji froze as he thought about it, he would get the power to set fate right again. If he was being offered such power, then fate had decided he was ready for it. So he said the only thing that he could, "Yes."

Darkness overcame Neji, and he wouldn't wake again until morning, but by then it was done. He smirked in the mirror as the solid black band around his neck stood out in stark contrast to his off white shirt. "Oh yes... this body will do nicely for my mission..."

The Orb Knights were enjoying a lovely break from the practice from hell, okay so maybe they were just painting a fence, it was still better than attempting to survive training. Well that's what they were thinking with Kurenai anywhere within a five mile radius. They didn't know how, but they knew she could read their minds, and if they even started thinking about complaining...

The shudder of terror thankfully didn't damage the fence, but it did cause a subtle hum that buzzed through the air, annoying the ears of one Sasuke Uchiha. He was promptly glomped by fangirls while trying to clear out his ears, but that's not important to this story.

There was one benefit to being a ninja that they hadn't considered when they first took this mission, they were getting paid to do chores for others. And that meant that they could have some of their favorite foods more often.

Another benefit that they hadn't thought about before hand, was that it was a bright, sunshine filled day that made the work a pleasant and relaxing especially with the pleasant breeze taking the paint fume far away. All in all, it was a relaxing and pleasant experience, if it wasn't for the patrolling teachers making sure they were still working. After all, none of them ever wanted a pissed Anko after them, and if someone could tame her like Kurenai-sensei did, they did NOT want to piss them off.

So now it was a simple matter of making sure this mission last long enough that they didn't have training after, they knew they couldn't get it done in time to get another mission. It was listed as a two team all day job, so they got it, and only hope and pray that nothing interrupted it.

Just as they were finishing up the first coat of the paint on the fence, something happened that caused all of them to dive for cover. Well, when a pillar of stone slammed into the fence in front of them, you would think that their training would take over like that, wouldn't you?

Turning as one to where the pillar had come from, they were all shocked to find a walking body of stone heading for them. "Umm... Guys? I think that it's time to break out our friends..."


	10. Chapter 9

_**Last Time on Orb Knights:**_

_Just as they were finishing up the first coat of the paint on the fence, something happened that caused all of them to dive for cover. Well, when a pillar of stone slammed into the fence in front of them, you would think that their training would take over like that, wouldn't you?_

_Turning as one to where the pillar had come from, they were all shocked to find a walking body of stone heading for them. "Umm... Guys? I think that it's time to break out our friends..."_

_**And Now...**_

The four fellow knights didn't bother replying, instead letting their alternate forms leap over them with a seemingly practiced ease. To an observer one minute there were five kids, the next there were a bunch of beings that made them wonder just what was in the water. Of course, anyone stupid enough to stick around watching them was probably classified as cannon fodder and not important.

Shiroshika and Enganxa hung back, while the other three leaped to the attack. Pard was a simple blur as he bolted in to strike at the rock-man before he could heft another projectile. His attacks didn't do much damage, even if they sent the 2000 pound being flying backwards.

Damage to the being that is, collateral damage is to be expected after all.

Kyukon seemed to be keeping back, but in reality she was attacking the mind of the beast that was assaulting them. Her fire wouldn't do much good against this thing, and she couldn't lift enough with her telekinesis to do anything more than annoy the pile of boulders. What she found was strange, it was a similar mind-scape to her own host, but what she found was something that she'd never imagined doing.

The host was sealed inside a giant crystal while the golem was in control. A few dodges and point blank fire-blasts told her that whatever it was, it had been trained to fight on the mental plane. Not that it was stronger than she expected, as her fire-blasts had started causing its rocks to glow red with heat, just that it was faster and more coordinated in its counter-attacking. Only one explanation was possible for this, but she needed to access the memories of the others to see if her suspicions were correct. If she was right, then the orbs had been copied by the vile, evil, and disgusting bastards that had killed their creators and original hosts.

She pulled out of the mind of the beast, just in time for Zahava to slam into the rock beast with a metal sledge twice its size and probably four times its weight. She really hoped that Naruto and the others wouldn't have to pay for that section of road the golem was now embedded into.

Turning to Enganxa she nodded her head, sending a burst of an image for the magical being to enact as part of a plan. A second later she was in the air, her nine-tails flared out behind her as she summoned up her fire powers. When she landed, she hit the golem with a point blank shot of as much flames as she could muster, causing its eyebrows to melt down and cover its eye slits. Sadly her act put her very close to the being, and she was again flying through the air, after getting hit by the things fist.

Mercifully for the surrounding area, Zahava created a metal slide that looped her around safely to the ground, where she regained her senses, and popped her jaw back into place. Okay, so maybe that could have gone better, but she had gotten the results she needed. The golem was swinging wildly, meaning that she had blinded the damn thing. Now hopefully it doesn't have access to the eyes she saw on the host. They were the same as the ones that Enganxa's host, Hinata had, and from what she'd learned it could see through the layer of stone currently closing the eye-holes with ease.

But the diversion was enough, Enganxa got off her spell without being detected. The large blue orb shot through the assaulting knights with a laser guided precision, before washing over the golem's body. Once it had completely encircled the body, it began slowly pulling off the golem's skin in tendrils, forming an orb high in the sky above the body being revealed.

About halfway through, the female members decided to look for something else to observe for a while, as smooth, creamy skin was revealed over taught muscles of the man's chest. Thankfully this didn't break the spell, and so it continued to peel the rocky skin, revealing the young man's body underneath.

After a minute, the rock creature was contained, and the human body landed into the dirt in nothing but his underwear. Due to the nature of the spell, the orb wasn't like the ones they had been contained in, but instead sealed the being into a crystalline structure that they could read at the base computer.

. . .

Oh right, they didn't have one of those anymore...

They really needed one of the more technical orbs to awaken so they could build one, and find out who sent this orb. But back to the meantime, Enanxa seemed to recognize the figure sprawled out across the ground, or at least her host did, lunging forward out of concern before she regained her composure. None the less, Hinata's voice broke as she whispered sadly about the stationary form. "Hibiki-san..."

The knights all searched around the area cautiously, feeling the presence of another enemy waiting for them. It was Kyukon that sensed him first, and whipped her head around to stare up at the giant red skinned beast with large fangs, horns, and an iron spiked club standing over them. The loin cloth it wore about it's waist unfortunately didn't cover much from this angle, but they couldn't focus on that right now. After all, when something holding a kanabo-tetsubo larger than your own body is glaring at you, other things take precedence.

"**Well done...**" the oni stated calmly as though it hadn't just won. "**It has been so long since I had a worthy challenge... Not since the last batch of foolish Orblings challenged my master and lost...**"

If that was intended to piss off the Orb Knights... it worked, as they all either grit their teeth in anger, or growled. "And just who are you?" Shiroshika demanded before the others could regain their emotional control.

"**Me? Foolish stag, I'm Akki, and I will be your doom!**" the red skinned monster answered while leveling its club straight at the white stag that had challenged him. "**You will be the first to fall to my club...**"

Even as he proclaimed his challenge his club began to disappear into tiny motes of color that drifted lazily back to the main body. Judging by the shocked look on his face, Akki wasn't expecting this either. With a snarl he slung the club back over his shoulder and pointed his other hand at the knights. "**This is not over! I will return!**"

Gathering his legs under himself, he sprang off the roof and disappeared into thin air, with only a cloud of red marking the location he vanished from. The knights looked between each other, as though asking just what that was, before turning towards the still prone Hibiki Hyuuga. "Egnanxa your host knows this one?"

"Yes... she says that he is missing a seal that the branch members are meant to have..." Enganxa explained while kneeling next to the still mostly naked Hyuuga and stroked his forehead lightly. "It would see that being fused with the golem removed it..."

"We'll need to report this to the Hokage, and whoever heads up the Hyuuga clan..." Kyukon concluded after a moment of thought, just in time for the ANBU and their teachers to arrive. "Ah, perfect timing sensei... Could you help us with protocol on this matter?"

The looks on Kurenai and Anko's face would be something the younger hosts would savor for years to come. But more pressing matters concerned them now, and with that in mind they gathered up the unconscious man and began making their way off to the hospital.

To say that the little procession drew attention would have been an understatement, especially since at their head was a white nine-tailed fox with red tipped tails fanned out behind her. To her surprise however, instead of the shocked, fearful, or even hostile stares she was expecting, she was receiving approving looks, smiles, or curious glances.

This was weird, and judging by her host's reactions he agreed with her.

However, her mind was preoccupied with another matter. A base was needed for their future operations, and on top of that they needed to set up a computer to aide them in their battles. Especially if they were to figure out who it was that sent Akki after them.

They felt certain that he wasn't the big boss, but they needed to figure out who it was, and why they were after them. If they were out to restart the war, they would find the Knights stronger than they were back then. But she knew that they needed to get stronger. They had to be... for their hosts if nothing else.

A big help with that would be getting their base and their computer online.

Now what was the name of that nerdy knight that liked to muck around with the computers again? She couldn't remember for the life of her., and she had more than just her life to consider at this point. She liked this host, and she wanted him to survive, and if she could win over her darker cousin...

That was a matter for another time, now it was time to report to the Hokage, and explain how they were revealed to the entire village within a single day of becoming active when they had planned on being secretive about their existence for a while longer.

Maybe she could blame the enemy... after all they were a ninja village, certainly they've heard the rule that no plan survives contact with the enemy.

The glare she was getting from the Hokage told her that the excuse was not going to work...

Several blocks away, in a secret hideaway Neji was glaring into a mirror. The cursed mark that had been on his forehead was gone, but at the cost of his honor and his loyalty to the village. He'd managed to win against this demon possessing him this time, but he knew it wasn't going to last. It had taken nearly everything he had to win this time, he didn't know if he could do it again. But he knew that he was going to try.

If he couldn't, then he was doomed.


	11. Chapter 10

**Currently looking for:** One beta reader for a multitude of Naruto fanfiction created by this author. Any interested parties should make contact via PM. Thank you for your time.  


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If Sarutobi had wanted to squish Kyukon between his fingers, she felt that right now he could actually accomplish this with ease. His glare had her feeling that she was less than an inch tall, and weaker than a blade of grass. It wasn't even her fault, but she took the brunt of the ire since she was team leader, and she could at least spare them this part of the duties. Debriefing the commander was never fun. "And that is how it happened sir... I apologize for not protecting our existence more, but offer no excuses beyond the lack of time to do so. I believe that our hosts remain a secret, but it would be easy to figure them out as only they are the only recent graduates."

Instead of chewing her out, or telling her off, or any number of things, he simply studied her silently, forcing her to remain at attention as he silently deliberated. When he pulled out a pipe from his drawer, she almost shrunk away fearing it to be a weapon, instead she watched as he casually lit it and took a few light puffs before taking a long, slow draw of the tobacco filling the bowl. Releasing the smoke in a neat little ring that drifted away from them he sighed heavily. "It is not ideal, but I believe we might just have just gotten the best public exposure of your team possible."

At the obvious stumped expression that crossed her face, the Hokage chuckled softly as he took another draw from his pipe before continuing. "Consider this Kyukon, in my employ I have five beings of unknown powers and origins. Konoha is among the largest and most prosperous nations, so the likelihood of you five remaining secret is extremely limited, if possible at all. "

"I had not considered that Commander sir..." Kyukon admitted as she scratched herself behind the ears. "I would not wish to cause a war between the over us..."

"I do not doubt that you do not wish such a war, but it is possible if we utilize you exclusively..." Sarutobi explained while pulling out a map from the shelves behind his desk. Spreading it out, he indicated where Konoha was in relation to the other nations, pretty close to dead center of all the other nations. "As you can see, Konoha has always needed to be strong due to its position, but we do not actively seek war."

"To do so would likely court destruction..." Kyukon answered as she traced a clawed talon over the borders carefully, as though mesmerizing the lines. "I believe that is possibly what happened to our previous society... they showed too much of their strength, too often and others united against them..."

Sarutobi took a chance to examine the expression of the fox-woman standing opposite him. He'd seen her shift through expressions many times, but this one was one he'd only seen when talking about the past, when they lost a war that killed their creators and previous hosts. Nodding his head silently he leaned back and sighed as a stream of smoke plumed out of his mouth. "Konoha tries to find a peaceful solution, if it comes to it, may I ask you to consider testing outsiders into the knights?"

Kyukon paused before answering, her face showing a good deal of surprise at the question. She hadn't thought he would consider such a suggestion, and hadn't even thought about it herself. But it could be a way to find the missing knights. It would also serve to limit the threat to Konoha, but building an international organization would cause some nations to reconsider attacking them, especially if their people were still there.

This seemed like too major a decision to make without asking the others of the team first, for as much as they might seem to have the military hierarchy in place they were still pretty much all of equal rank. In fact she only got nominated for being the leader so that everyone else didn't want the title, and she was just half a second slower than they were. Beyond that there was the matter of Konoha's politics to consider, and the hosts themselves. Could they really be an international force?

Why couldn't she think of the previous leaders so she could try and find them to ask these questions to?

"Commander... I mean Hokage-sama... I do not believe that I am ready as a leader to make this choice on my own..." Kyukon stated calmly while lowering her head and ears in submission before the older man. "If... If I might have time to discuss this with the others..."

"Perhaps a wise choice in and of itself, I presume by others you mean hosts as well as the other knights, correct?" Sarutobi mused while taking a calming puff on his pipe. After a moment he continued. "Yes, I will give you a week to discuss this matter with the others before hearing your answer. Now... about these enemies that assaulted you..."

"From what our memories can form, the first creature is known as a golem, a construct of inert material brought to life by bonding to a host in much the same way we knights do as well, though not nearly as strongly..." the vulpine explained while straightening up in a proper lecturing position. As she paused to consider her next words she wondered about the questions it raised. "It would seem from the host of Enganxa... Hinata if I remember right... that the bonding process removed a binding seal of their clan..."

"Sensible, since they wouldn't want an enemy or other force an opening to control or kill the host inside..." Sarutobi mused, before stopping at the wide-eyed expression on Kyukon. "Did not Hyuuga-san explain what the seal does?"

"No, she did not... and I know why she withheld it, Enganxa would find that abhorrent and barbaric, much as I dare say many of us knights would..." Kyukon answered sharply, her tails slashing behind her as more red slowly crept along their lengths. "By the All-Mother herself, I cannot believe that humans would do this, especially to their own kin..."

"You will find that Hyuuga-san herself, and I believe her sister as well, find it exactly as such..." Sarutobi cut in while wondering just what the creeping red meant. But something else had caught his attention that he felt should be mentioned. "Pardon my ignorance, but All-Mother?"

If there was a way to derail the vixen's rant, this seemed to be it, as her ears flattened down barely hiding the tiniest hints of reddening insides. Her gaze shifted down, and her forefingers began their claws together. "Err... that is... difficult to explain sir..."

Sarutobi didn't speak, didn't move, didn't seem to react all, instead chose to let her explain in her own time. A few puffs of his pipe later seemed to be all the time she needed, as she began explaining. "Many of us knights were of average or higher intelligence, and began to wonder who we were in the grand scheme of things. Not knights created by mankind to serve them, but as sentient beings. A scientist overheard us debating one day, and began to explain religion to us."

"At first we considered worshiping our creators, but something did not sit well with us on that concept. Instead we began researching what they worshiped, until we could find one that we ourselves could follow..." Kyukon continued a slight ripple in her fur around her neck caught Sarutobi's attention. "That turned out different than our expectations however, as upon finding a common themes, we began forming our own version of one of them. The All-Mother is a being similar to beings named Gaia, Toci, Danu, or the Mother Goddess in that she is the creator of all things, the mother to all life. The Earth Mother if you will..."

Finally the rippling of the fur stopped, and a small symbol could be made seen hanging on a fine chain. It was a simple circle of silver that formed into a perfect sphere. "She is without ending, without beginning, she is always and forever. I believe that it was Zahva who created this symbol, that we felt was an ideal representation of our belief... Eventually we all had one that we could wear, but the scientist that created us began to frown upon us bearing these symbols openly. It was shortly after that we absorbed them into us, ensuring that the All-Mother would always be with us..."

The wizened Hokage nodded slowly as he studied the necklace in silence a couple minutes more before leaning back and letting out a large stream of smoke out of his nostrils. "Most curious... you are of course free to worship as you and the other knights see fit Kyukon. We do not have many religions as shinobi tend to trust in their skills and weapons more than beings they cannot see. But I see no harm in following a religion. Are there any tenants I should be aware of, such as holidays, restrictions, or other matters that may cause problems with your duties?"

"No sir, the religion formed around our duties as knights, and as such I am afraid there is no real organization to it..." Kyukon explained while reassuming the embarrassed pose as Sarutobi had dubbed it.

"I see no harm in continuing to develop it if you wish Kyukon, it might be good for you as a species..." the old man mused before sighing and shaking his head slowly, "but we digress...Your report stated something about a... giant red man with horns and no sense of public decency from your past?"

"Correct Hokage-sama, I believe it is one of the lieutenants of the creatures that killed our creators and previous hosts... Akki was the name that he claimed to go by, and Shiroshika confirmed that he had faced and defeated those commanded by him in the past," Kyukon explained while projecting an image of what she'd seen of Akki's arrival and proclamation into the Hokage's mind.

"I see... that is... certainly cause for concern, and you say that he commands and creates these 'golems'?" the Hokage asked, taking the proffered crystalline being and looking at it with a curious expression.

"Yes sir... we captured this one, and could have scanned it back then for more information... but..."

"You lack the devices necessary?" Sarutobi surmised while handing back the crystal, watching it disappear into a ripple of fur silently. That was certainly a most useful storage method, but he feared it would be impossible for a human to learn.

The leader of the knights nodded solemnly at the admission of failure on her part, knowing that as the designated field captain of the nights, she should have realized this oversight prior to such and incident occurring. '_Yeah, how dare you not plan for the coming of things you thought were long dead and buried..._' Naruto argued with her mentally, surprising her at having learned to use sarcasm so perfectly.

He was correct however, she and the other knights had never considered it possible that their enemies of old were still alive now. So the computer would naturally have fallen to the bottom of the list, compared to learning about their new bodies and the world the knights now found themselves in. Even now, she couldn't divert the resources to find a compatible match for the technically inclined knight. Partially the fault lay in that she couldn't remember anything about them, save for the fact that they were gifted when it came to technology.

Not that she was blaming herself for that, since she never really had many dealings with the tech group outside of dropping off crystals. But it would be helpful to be able to know the names at the least. '_Can't we scan the orbs with our cool mind reading powers?_' Naruto asked from inside her again, provoking an instinctive negative response, until she really thought about it. There wasn't any reason she couldn't read their inactive consciousnesses... was there?

"It would seem that you have much to consider Kyukon-san... perhaps you and Naruto should go and talk with the other knights, they are probably thinking I'm tearing you apart..." Sarutobi joked lightly, giving Kyukon the much needed opportunity to leave and discuss this with Naruto and the others more.

"By your leave Hokage-sama..." she intoned softly before disappearing into the bracelet and leaving Naruto standing there blinking in confusion.

"Eh... Hey Ji-san..." Naruto stated while trying to figure out why Kyukon had just dumped him out like this.

"Greetings Naruto-kun... have you been well?"

While Naruto and Sarutobi held polite conversation, the other knights had assembled in an abandoned room of the tower to get away from the mob of shinobi trying to view the new addition to their village. Professional curiousity was the reason for most of them, however at least one wanted to speak with them.

Iruka Umino was many things in the village hidden in the leaves, an academy teacher, mission desk clerk, chuunin, and right now the most important was as a brother figure to one Naruto Uzumaki. He could understand keeping things secret from him, so he wasn't worried or pissed about that, instead he just wanted to make certain the young blonde was being treated well by this new group.

In order to accomplish this, he had set up an 'abandoned' room after hearing of their arrival in the tower, and carefully herded the main group of them into it, where he could observe them silently. If they could find him, then he would accept his punishment as it may come, but if they didn't he wouldn't trust them any farther than he could throw the Hokage monument.

Maybe that was unfair, but he had to know if they would harm Naruto. And so he was set to observe them, keeping notes for the good of Konoha as well.

"I'm telling you Zahava, he holds a grudge against me..." the white stag muttered while looking around the room suspiciously. "I do not remember if we fought directly before, but I would say he would probably prefer that."

The metallic female draped in a layer of chains that Iruka guessed was the thusly named Zahava, sighed and put her hand on the stag's shoulder gently. Once she had his attention she began speaking in a soft, low metallic voice. "Easy there Shiroshika, we all probably have enemies from the past. All-Mother herself knows that I have made plenty of my own... We thought them dead, but now we are forewarned. And as such we are forearmed."

"I know that, but it's frustrating to have our memories being so incomplete..." Shiroshika answered with a grunt and a stamp of his foot. This seemed to get the cheetah looking one's attention.

"Shiroshika,itistroublingusall," Iruka blinked as he heard the speed with which the cheetah talked. "EspeciallyforLadyKyuko."

"She feels the need to be better than our leaders of the past," the so far quiet other female answered while settling into the nicest of the chairs in the room. "We put her on the spot as the leader, but she lacks the training the leaders of old had..."

"Battlefield commissions do that to a person Enganxa..." Shiroshika answered with a heavy sigh. "But we do not even know if she had training or not, none of us can remember much of our past."

This caught Iruka's attention, these beings were talking as though they had been displaced from their own time. A time in which they were a formal military force of some sort. Listening closer, he wondered what other secrets these... people... were keeping.

"How is your host holding up Enganxa?" Zahava asked the watery female being gently, kneeling in front of her so that they were eye level.

"She... is withholding information about the seal that she explained to us... but I will not pry. Beyond that, her relationship with the man in question was a distant one at best," Enganxa explained quietly, putting her head into her hand gently. "It is not the host that is pushing her limits... but I."

Iruka was ready to attack them at this, however he held back from the beings that had captured humans to use as host bodies, pushing them to their limits before probably tossing them aside like garbage. No, he would not allow Naruto to associate with them... as much as he might try to enforce that at least.

"Go ahead and revert, all of you... we're still young to this process, so we don't want to push it... we're already over an hour now..." Zahava ordered, before turning to look directly at where Iruka was hiding. "You may come out now... our hosts declared you a safe person..."

Blinking at being directly addressed, he sighed and opened the false wall before walking out with his hands exposed to show he wasn't a threat. Another shock was waiting for him, as the instant he stepped into the room proper, the four beings disappeared from in front of him, revealing four former students of his. Four students he had passed personally not too long ago.

"I believe we have much explaining to do Iruka-sensei..." Tenten stated shyly while scratching the back of her head. Iruka's nod was enough to make her sigh and wave to the chairs. "Let's get comfortable... this is going to take a while..."

In another area of the Hokage tower there was a black haired, black eyed genius of his academy year that was fuming angrily at the interruption to his monthly well-being interview with the Hokage. These freaks were attacked, and they defeated or drove off the other freaks that had assaulted them in the village.

It was still not enough that he should be forced out of his interview, so that the Hokage could have a private meeting with the ringleader. A dirty, filthy, nine-tailed fox. As if they hadn't done enough damage to the village.

Just as he was going to go onto another silent rant about the injustice of it all, the Hokage's office doors opened up and instead of that white vixen walking out, it was Naruto Uzumaki and the Hokage. So the dobe hadn't actually killed the Hyuuga, the Nara, and two older students before running away from the village after all, huh? Guess that was another thing the rumor mill at the academy got wrong.

"Bye Ji-san!" the offensive blonde called out, causing Sasuke's blood to boil, as he realized that he had to be the white fox that he'd seen walk into the office earlier. How dare he cause such a ruckus and then be so informal with the Hokage. It was unforgivable.

As he prepared a scathing remark that would put the idiot into his place, he noticed that he wore a hitai-ate. The idiot was a ninja? HOW? Had he truly surpassed the Uchiha, despite his proclamations to the opposite?

No, it had to be because of that alternate form he'd walked into the office wearing. If the lowest of the class could gain such power by obtaining such a form, then just imagine what an Avenger like Sasuke could do with it.

He had to have that power...

And nothing would stand in his way.


	12. Chapter 11

Naruto sat in his living room, staring at the seal array that he and the Hokage had worked out to store the spare Orb Knights until they could activate them properly. Any one of the orbs inside there could be a leader, or the tech knight that they needed to build up the computer and scanner. '_Kyukon, are you sure I'm ready for this? Shouldn't you try this first?_' Naruto asked his partner while releasing the first set of slumbering knights.

'_I think you are ready, and remember, just do a surface scan of any thoughts that might be present,_' Kyukon couched from inside Naruto, trying to sound positive and confident about this. To be honest she was afraid to take over his body again, out of fear of over stressing him.

Naruto sighed as he looked over the spheres of varying colors and designs, for some reason, he just felt ill at ease. "Here goes..." Naruto whispered as he held out his hand, a yellow glow surrounding it while the orbs began hovering in the air around his body. His blue eyes shifted between each orb slowly, as trickles of information began flowing into his mind.

It was tough at first, but he was gaining some insight into the mentality of the dormant knights inside. As he learned about what their talents and skills were, he subconsciously began grouping them. A few were piled up to the left as field commanders while the ones to the right were the ones that would be more use further back as controllers and support members. However, none of these were what he needed this time, they were all followers and lower ranked members.

Continuing on, he processed the groups steadily, however as the piles of lower knights continued to grow Naruto couldn't help but realize that his growing sense of despair wasn't entirely his own. He couldn't even offer comforting words to his partner, as he was almost completely through the collection of orbs and not a single one showed any promise.

They either held no interest for technology, or they showed no signs of having ever seen the inside of the former headquarters. There was only one seal left, and he held no hope of finding the orbs he needed to pull out a win. He'd have to be lucky beyond belief in order to succeed in this, nine seals laid empty, and the tenth only held three orbs instead of the usual six that the others had.

He wasn't good with math, but even he could see that the odds of getting a good orb was terrible. Opening the final trio of orbs, he watched as they rolled off the scroll and settled into the threadbare carpeting of his apartment. He really should look into getting the place fixed up if Kyukon was going to be staying here as well. Closing his eyes, he focused on the job at hand, putting thoughts of ways to improve the apartment into the farthest corners of his mind, where he usually kept his anger at his treatment by the villagers.

Before he scanned the orbs, he wanted to completely clear his mind, and one of the meditation exercises he learned in the academy was excellent for doing just that. Instead of focusing on nothing, he would focus exclusively on one item until it became nearly meaningless to him. As odd of a choice it may seem, he found it easiest to meditate when he zeroed in on his favorite food, Ramen.

Somehow this caused his mind to drain away the surroundings and turn itself into a blank canvas for his powers to paint over. Extending his hand again, he lifted up the first of the three orbs and scanned it carefully, frowning as he realized once again he'd found a warrior, but not a commander. Putting it aside, he took up the second orb and viewed it curiously. It would seem that this one was another office worker, and better than that, an scanner technician!

The blue and white orb settled itself neatly onto a pillow, gaining a huge grin off of Naruto. A scanner technician might be able to help them back engineer the computers and such they needed. Beyond that, they could needed someone to actually run the damn things once they were online, and none of the active knights seemed to have the first clue how that would go.

With the happy feeling burning brightly in his heart, it took Naruto a few minutes to calm himself to scan the final orb. Holding up the orb, he smiled as it revealed itself to be not only an engineer, but also one of the original creators of the scanner system itself. This was perfect! Now all he had to do was find its own... er...

Orbs weren't supposed to shoot out from his hand and through a solid stone wall were they?

'_Kyukon?_' Naruto asked in a panic as he sealed the orbs back in a nearly random fashion, his eyes tracking the direction that the orb had jetted off towards. This wasn't going to be fun to report, but he probably should chase after it.

'_It is following your orders to find its partner Kit,_' Kyukon explained with a heavy tone to her voice. It would probably be a good idea to report this to the Hokage as soon as possible, but that would make two failures on her part in a single day. Along with the lack of any other commanders in the sealed orbs meant that she was stuck in command, which meant that she couldn't step down as the others would just turn to her anyhow. '_We shall have to report this... it is already outside of Konoha..._'

Well at least the international aspect of the Orb Knight organization was starting off alright... now to see about that peace between the Elemental Nations part...

Meanwhile, several dozen miles away, a brunette woman was dodging a psychotic orb that was chasing her like some sort of bizarre homing device. Looking back, she gasped as it seemed to be gaining on her, despite her best efforts to get away from it. Diving to the ground, she watched it scream past her.

Rolling back up, she reversed her direction to get away from the crazy ball chasing after her. She had to get back to her master, and make his dinner. But she couldn't if this stupid ball wasn't going to stop chasing after her. Using the momentary opening she summoned up several mirrors along her path and began using them to hop forward at an insanely fast rate. Pausing in the last mirror, she took a moment to catch her breath, only to hear something that she shouldn't in the mirrors.

Turning around she saw that the orb thing was inside the mirrors, coming at her. That shouldn't be possible, these mirrors required her bloodline to enter!

Leaping out of the mirror, she released them into a shattering of little shards that began melting even before they hit the ground. Even as she watched the water drop to the ground, icy blue strands of goo rippled out, solidifying into the accursed orb in mid-air. What the hell was this thing? She'd done everything to it, save freezing it into a solid chunk and smashing it to bits!

Seeing no harm in at least attempting to do just that netted her a good sense of satisfaction and a couple seconds of breathing room. Or so she thought, as she tried to drop the branch she'd smashed the orb with, she realized she couldn't in fact, whatever was binding it to her arm was currently climbing up her arms.

Before she could let out a scream, a strap of the living latex like material covered her face, and she knew nothing more.


End file.
